New Beginnings
by zomganonymous
Summary: What would have happened if the gang hadn't met up until their junior year in high school? JH, ED. [chapter 21 up]
1. Chapter 1

This is my first fic, so please, constructive criticism is welcomed and encouraged!

---

Donna Pinciotti glanced out her bedroom window, taking a break from sifting through her closet, trying to find the perfect outfit for the party she was going to that night. She saw the skinny boy who lived next door shooting hoops in the driveway. What was his name? Derek, maybe? All she knew was that his last name was Forman, as everyone at school had called him Foreplay for years. She shook her head. Who cared, anyways? He was a loser.

"He is cute, in that sort of innocent way." Donna thought aloud. She sighed. She desperately needed a date for this party, and she had put it off until the very last minute, hoping that one of the guys at school might stop just staring at her chest as she passed by and maybe, just maybe, actually ask her out. But as usual, that hadn't happened. So she was without a date for now, and if she walked into Cat Peterson's party without a guy on her arm, she'd probably be the laughingstock. She sighed again, and decided to go talk to the boy next door before he went inside.

---

Eric Forman watched as the basketball he had just put up made a perfect arc through the air and made a beautiful "swoosh" sound in the net. "Yes!" he said to himself.

"Nice shot." a female voice said approvingly, as he went to pick up the ball.

He turned quickly, nearly tripping over the basketball, and saw a tall, red-haired girl standing at the end of the driveway. "Uh, hi." he said, his voice squeaking.

The girl approached. _God, she's hot_, he thought.

"Um, thanks." she smiled, a little nervously. Eric realized that he had been thinking aloud. _Stupid, stupid, stupid!_

"Uh, this is going to seem weird, I know, but I'm supposed to be going to this party tonight, and I don't have a date. I know we don't know each other very well… or, well, we don't know each other at all. I mean, I don't even know your name! But… wow, I just realized how stupid this sounds." she forced a laugh, her face beginning to match her hair. "Um, sorry about this." She turned and started walking quickly back down the driveway.

"Hey, wait." Eric went after her. A girl like this, wanting _him_ to take her to a party? Who cared if it was weird, and they didn't even know each other's names? He was not about to let this chance get away.

"What? Going to make fun of me for being so desperate?" She was suddenly on the defensive.

"No! No, no, no, I just wanted to say that if you need a date, I'll go with you. I mean, if you want. If you don't want to, that's okay, but if you do…" Eric realized he was rambling and stopped. "Uh, I'm Eric Forman. In case you were wondering."

The girl laughed a little. "Um, I'm Donna. Donna Pinciotti. And okay, if you want to come… Well, it's really very weird for both of us, but I need a date, and you want to go, so… Okay." She smiled.

"Great. Sounds good, Donna Pinciotti." Eric smiled, trying not to show her how nervous – or horny, she _did_ have great boobs, after all – he was.

"Okay, Eric Forman. Pick me up around eight." Donna returned his smile and Eric watched this mysterious girl walk away.

---

Donna went back up to her room, wondering what she had just done. She had gone up to a complete stranger and asked him to go to a party with her. She sighed. Was it possible that the brownie she had bought at the school bake sale today had been victimized by one of the many pothead burnouts at school? That was the only thing Donna could think of that justified her actions.

_Oh well. What's done is done, _she thought. She started sifting through her clothes again, picking a simple t-shirt and her favorite jeans. Even though she had hung around the edges of the cheerleaders' clique since eighth grade when she had been in Cat Peterson's homeroom, this was the first big party Donna had been invited to, and she had no idea what to wear. All she knew was that Cat had directly ordered her to bring a date. Which she had covered.

Donna looked at her watch. She had about five minutes before Eric would be arriving. _Here we go_. She went downstairs.

"Hiya, honey, where are you off to tonight?" Donna's father, Bob, grinned at her when she walked into the kitchen.

"Oh, Cat invited me to a party. So I'll be there all night." Donna shrugged.

"Ooh, a _party_? That sounds like so much fun!" Donna's mother, Midge, clapped her hands in excitement.

"Yeah, Mom, I know." Donna smiled, wishing her mother could mature a little. She was forty-something, for God's sake, and she was still more of a ditz than the entire cheerleading squad combined.

"So are you bringing a date?" Midge asked, smiling knowingly. As if on cue, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Donna moved towards the door.

"No, I'll get it. I want to meet this boy that's taking my little girl out to some big party." Bob said, in one of his more responsible moments. Donna rolled her eyes. This little responsibility thing hadn't come at the greatest time. _She_ didn't even know if her date was a good guy or not, how did she know if her father would let her out of the house with him?

Donna followed Bob to the front door. "Hi, Mr. Pinciotti. I didn't know you were Donna's dad." Eric said, sounding somewhat confused.

Bob chuckled good-naturedly. "How many Pinciottis are there in Point Place, Eric? So you're taking my Donna out to this party? Well, you kids have fun. Bye, now!"

Donna stepped outside, and her father shut the door behind her. This was weird. How did Bob know Eric, when she hadn't even known the boy's name? "So, uh, you know my dad?

---

Eric laughed nervously, realizing a little bit late that the girl whose ass he'd just been admiring was speaking to him. "Yeah, I used to mow your lawn, a while back. Funny, I never knew Bob had a daughter. I sort of figured he didn't, 'cause once in a while I overheard him talking to your mom about a nudist party they'd had the night before… I don't know, somehow I just figured that people with kids in the house wouldn't be doing, uh, stuff like that…" He shuddered, not wanting to imagine Bob at a nudist party.

Donna looked just as distressed. "Ugh, I know. It's disgusting. They always tell me I can come hang out with them and their friends. It's so embarrassing!"

Eric gave another nervous laugh. "Yeah, sounds like it." It was silent for a long moment. "Oh, uh, this is my car." He pointed at the Vista Cruiser.

---

A beat-up brown station wagon. Donna was going to be seen arriving at her first big party in an old station wagon. Great.

"Oh, um, it's nice." she lied.

"I know, it's nothing great. But at least I can get around when I need to, right?" Eric shrugged, apparently having caught the dismayed look that had flashed across Donna's face.

"Very true." Donna had to agree.

"Well, uh, we should probably get going." Eric said, breaking another long silence. The pair got into the car and headed for the party, the uncomfortable silence broken only by Donna giving Eric directions to Cat's house.

Donna was really beginning to regret inviting Eric to this party. She should have just stayed at home. It would have meant missing her chance to really become a part of Cat's group, but anything would have been better than sitting in an uncomfortable old car on her way to a date with a boy she didn't even know, let alone feel anything for.

"So, um… what do you do in your spare time?" Donna asked in an effort to break the ice.

"Well… I like Star Wars a lot. And building models. Sometimes I shoot hoops in my driveway." Eric shrugged. He didn't continue the conversation. Donna sighed, frustrated. Finally, the station wagon pulled up in front of a large white house.

"Is this the place?" Eric asked.

"Yeah." Donna confirmed, relieved. She got out of the car and walked up to the front door, not bothering to wait for Eric to park and catch up with her.

"Hey!" Cat Peterson opened the front door. "Come on in. Did you bring a date?" Despite the fact that she'd invited Donna in, Cat blocked the doorway before hearing Donna's answer. It was obvious to Donna that losers who couldn't attract a guy were _not _good enough for a party thrown by the head cheerleader.

"Oh, yeah, he's parking his car, he'll be up here in a minute." Donna nodded.

Cat nodded and disappeared inside, not bothering to even pretend she wanted to hang out with Donna. Donna rolled her eyes and went inside.

---

Eric got out of the car and headed towards the house. "Donna?" he called. He couldn't see her anywhere. "I knew this was too good to be true." Eric said to himself as he knocked on the front door.

A tall blonde opened the door. "Um, hi, Foreplay. What are _you_ doing here?" she asked snottily.

"Uh, I'm here with Donna… uh, Donna Pinciotti? Have you seen her?" Eric answered nervously.

Cat rolled her eyes. "_You're_ her date? Wow, she's desperate. Yeah, she's here. Go ahead." Cat disappeared, leaving Eric alone to try and find Donna.

Eric wandered through the house, a sea of hot girls giving him calculating looks. When he finally found the redhead, she was laughing with a guy who had shaggy brown hair.

"So then, the dog's owner – it was this little old lady - saw me, and she came over and hit me over the head with an umbrella! I was like, 'Damn, I just wanted to wrestle with your dog!' Old people are totally no fun. Except the older women at the Piggly Wiggly, there's some cuties over there!" the boy was saying.

---

Donna laughed, trying to decide if this good-looking boy was joking, or if he was serious. Either way, he was hot enough that he could be a model, and he was much more fun to be around than Eric.

Speak of the devil.

"Donna? I've been looking all over for you!" Eric said, relieved.

"Hey, it's Foreplay! Hi, Foreplay!" the boy laughed. Donna looked uncomfortable, as if she couldn't decide whether or not she should join in. Fortunately, the laughter stopped within a couple of seconds.

"So, uh, who's this?" Eric asked nervously.

"Um, good question." Donna turned to the boy. "You never did tell me your name." She smiled at him.

"Oh, uh, I'm Michael Kelso. Most people just call me Kelso, though. You're Donna Pinciotti, right? I've had a crush on your boobs since like ninth grade." Michael Kelso laughed again.

Donna laughed, half flattered, half uncomfortable. Kelso missed the apprehensive vibe Donna was sending, and he kept talking. "So, who're you here with, Big Red?"

"Oh, uh, I came with Eric." she said, sounding less than excited.

"Way to go, Foreplay!" Kelso nodded in approval. "But how about I take you out afterwards?"

Donna glanced at Eric and back at Kelso.

---

Dun dun dunnn. Review? 


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the feedback, to everyone who reviewed. :

I know, Donna's way OOC, but her character is based on what she would have been like had she not spent the majority of her life hanging out with the guys, but spent it with bitchy girls. I hate her too, but over the course of the story I'm going to try to bring her back down to earth.

Anyways, hopefully you'll like this chapter, and don't forget to review. :

"Sounds cool. You don't mind, do you, Eric?" Donna asked.

"Uh… of course not." Eric stuttered, shrugging. He cursed himself for being such a dumbass, thinking that he actually had a chance with this beautiful girl. Everyone had always told him that the only girl who would ever let _him_ get any was Big Rhonda, not a redheaded girl with boobs good enough that a prettyboy like Kelso would bother himself with them. When Donna had appeared in his driveway that evening, he had hoped that maybe his luck was changing. But now he could see that that wasn't going to happen…

"Are you still here, Foreplay?" Kelso asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"Oh, sorry." Eric started to walk away.

"I'll see you, Eric!" Donna called after him.

"Yeah, see you later." Eric responded, not believing it was going to happen, even though they _were_ next door neighbors.

---

"So, tell me again about wrestling with the old lady's dog!" Donna said, trying to look interested as Kelso excitedly retold the story. She felt really guilty for just ditching Eric like that, but she had to face facts: Eric was a loser. Eric was a geek, who sat around building Star Wars models. _She_ was the kind of girl who got invited to parties thrown by the head cheerleader. And she deserved someone like Michael Kelso, a popular, although kind of – no, very – stupid, good-looking guy.

"And yeah, I think even though she tried to act mad, she was really turned on by my lovable charm, not to mention my good looks!" Kelso pointed out.

Donna laughed, momentarily forgetting her guilt. "Michael, didn't you say she's like, eighty-five or something?"

"Oh, Donna, you should see me at the Piggly Wiggly. The old ladies love me almost as much as the cheerleaders!" Kelso said impressively, making Donna laugh again. "No, I'm serious!" he insisted.

"Well…" Donna began. Then she laughed again.

"What?" Kelso asked. "What's so funny? Is there a drunk girl singing to the oven again? Some girl was doing that earlier!"

"Are you serious?" Donna asked, not believing him.

"Yeah, I think it was Big Rhonda!" Kelso nodded frantically. Donna wondered silently to herself if he had ADHD.

"How did Big Rhonda get in to a party like this?" Donna wondered aloud.

"I dunno, someone probably thought she'd be good entertainment." Kelso shrugged. "And they were right, 'cause she was totally singing to the oven!" he laughed. "Hey, I'm gonna get another beer. Want me to grab you a drink?"

"Beer sounds good." Donna agreed. She watched Kelso disappear into the crowd.

---

_I wonder if she'll do it with me,_ Kelso wondered as he wandered through the house, winking at every lady who caught his eye as he searched for a couple of drinks. _Who am I kidding, of course she will! Who wouldn't?_

He was shaking his head and grinning at himself, wondering how he could have been so stupid as to doubt a girl's attraction to him, when a petite brunette in a cheerleader's uniform caught his eye. _Man, she's even hotter than Donna!_ He approached her. Not being a fan of formal introductions, he went up behind her and grabbed her ass.

The girl shrieked, obviously taken by surprise. "Who are _you_?" she demanded. "God, I hate you drunk public school guys! You're _gross!_"

"I'm Michael Kelso. How you doin'?" Kelso said smoothly, like the stud that he _knew_ he was.

"I'm Jackie Burkhart," the girl answered snottily, ignoring his question. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for a response.

"Well, Jackie, I've gotta say, you're pretty hot." Kelso told her.

"Jackie Burkhart! I'm from the richest family in Point Place! Does that mean anything to you?" the girl stomped her foot. "But thank you." she added as an afterthought.

"Uhhh, it means that if we hook up, you can buy me stuff?" Kelso guessed.

---

"Ugh!" Jackie rolled her eyes. Secretly, though, she felt a connection with this obviously materialistic – and adorable – boy.

"So, you wanna go out sometime?" Kelso asked her.

"Sure, how about after the party tonight?" Jackie replied brightly. She was dating an upperclassman now. Take _that_, nasty public school bitches!

"Uhhh, maybe some other time." Kelso turned her down, remembering that he had made plans with Donna that night, and that he wasn't about to let one totally hot chick get away just so he could go on a date with another totally hot chick. Why commit to one when he could have both? "I gotta go find some beer, and I heard some kid is selling special brownies, so I gotta go get some of those before they're out! But I'll see you later!"

"You're leaving? I hate you!" Jackie called after him. "Call me!" she added.

---

Donna was just beginning to regret ditching Eric. At least _he_ was, or at least he seemed to be, a stand-up guy who wouldn't just up and leave her. Unfortunately, it was beginning to look like Kelso had, when he _finally_ reappeared, a beer in each hand.

"Uh, I kinda finished most of yours. Sorry." Kelso handed Donna a half-gone can and popped open the other. Donna rolled her eyes. He may have been good-looking, but Kelso really seemed to be missing some brain cells. Kelso caught the eye-roll. "Oh, _fine_, you can have this one." he pouted, handing Donna the full can of beer.

"Thanks." Donna smiled, trading him the mostly empty can. "So… uh, what do you do when you're not out picking up girls at parties?" she asked, half-serious.

"Well, sometimes I'll pick up older ladies at the Piggly Wiggly, or I'll wrestle with dogs. I really like dogs! And then I've got my modeling and all." Kelso said. "And then, yeah, I spend tons of time picking up chicks at parties." he nodded.

Donna laughed. "I like dogs, too. Hey, I'm gonna go get another beer. Be right back." Donna stood and headed towards the kitchen.

"Burkhart, if you think I'm such a bitch, why don't you just get _out?_" Cat Peterson was demanding.

"Because _I_ am Jackie Burkhart, and I am _not_ going to let some skank push me around!" an unfamiliar voice screeched.

Donna sighed and headed towards the sound of the two girls arguing. By the time she got there, Cat had disappeared, and everyone seemed to have lost interest in the pathetic heap of a girl who was curled up in a chair in the corner. "Uh, are you okay…?" Donna asked.

"Do I _look_ okay?" the girl who had screeched that her name was Jackie Burkhart sat up quickly and glared at Donna.

"Um, no, that's-" Donna began.

Jackie interrupted. "If you _know_ I'm not okay, why did you ask?" She gave Donna a quick once-over. "Lumberjack."

This girl was starting to piss Donna off. "Look, _midget_, I was going to try to see if I could help you out any. But if you're not interested, I'll just go."

---

"No, wait." Jackie called the redheaded girl back. _She may be a giant, but at least she was trying to be nice. Unlike most people here._

"What?" the girl glared at Jackie.

"Sorry, it's just that Cat is being a total bitch. So I'm kind of getting catty." Jackie shrugged, wondering why she was being so open with this girl she'd just met.

"Uh, I noticed." Donna rolled her eyes.

"Anyways, I'm Jackie Burkhart." she announced herself regally again, like she had with Kelso. "I said, I'm _Jackie Burkhart_."

"I heard you." Donna shrugged. "I'm Donna Pinciotti."

"I'm _Jackie Burkhart!_ I'm from the richest family in Point Place! Why doesn't anyone understand that?!" Jackie stomped her foot and pouted.

"Um, I think we understand, but we just don't care." Donna pointed out.

Jackie fixed Donna with a glare. "Well, you _should_ care."

"Why?" Donna asked.

"Because I'm _Jackie Burkhart!_" Jackie screeched.

"Okay, okay, I get the point!" Donna rolled her eyes.

"So, Donna, we should go shopping together sometime! I could help you pick out some clothes that make you look pretty. Or, well, as close as we can get. I mean, if you're a giant, you're a giant, and clothes can't change that…" Jackie chattered, trying to be nice.

---

"Uh, thanks for the offer, but…" Donna looked at the hopeful look on this obnoxious midget's face, and decided to hold back her nasty comment. "Actually, sure." Donna cursed herself for getting into this, she was sure shopping with Jackie Burkhart would _not_ be one of the most pleasant experiences she'd ever had. But the look on Jackie's face almost made it worth it.

"Yayyyy!" Jackie clapped. "Now, we should also try to do something with your hair. I mean, it's a pretty color, I guess, if you like looking like Bozo the clown, but honey, you can't just let it hang and not do anything with it. Do you even use conditioner? I know this _great_ brand…" Donna rolled her eyes and tried her best to tune Jackie out.

"Oh, look at the time, I've got to go meet up with someone." Donna said, checking an imaginary watch.

"Oh, okay!" Jackie said cheerfully. "I should probably get going too, I've got an early practice tomorrow, you know, for cheerleading. So I'll call you about shopping! Bye!"

_What a strange little person_, Donna thought to herself, heading towards the kitchen to retrieve beers for herself and Kelso.

---

"Damn, Donna, what took so long?" Kelso demanded when Donna finally returned with the drinks. In reality, he wasn't all that angry, because Pam Macy had been all over him while Donna was gone – three girls in one night, could that be a record? – but he figured he should probably put on a show so as not to screw up his chances with all three girls.

"Sorry, I just met this girl, she was really upset, so-" Donna began.

"_Damn_, Donna! Girl on girl action and you left me here?!" Kelso shouted. He would give up making out with Pam to see some girl on girl action any day. I mean, it wasn't like it was hard for a guy to get some from Pam, anyways.

"_No,_" Donna laughed for some reason, although most times she would have been totally disgusted with a stupid perv like this. Maybe it was the beer. "We weren't, like, making out or something. We were just _talking_."

"Oh, sure, Donna, that's what they all say." Kelso said wisely. "I know how you girls are."

A few drinks later, Kelso found himself telling the dog-wrestling story. Again. And he was actually starting to get sick of it.

But Donna just kept laughing. "You are just _sooo_ funny!" _Yeah, she sounds pretty tipsy_. Kelso thought. _This could be the right time to see if she wants to go upstairs._

"So, Donna, it's getting late, so I was wondering if you want, you know, the big gift." Kelso winked.

"Ooh, a present? I like presents!" Donna said excitedly. "I want a present!"

_Oh man, I've hit the mother lode. A totally hot drunk girl pretty much asking to do it with me!_ Kelso thought excitedly. So what if it was kind of taking advantage of her? The mind of Michael Kelso – especially when he was pretty drunk himself - didn't think of how his actions would affect others, so long as he was getting what he wanted. "Then why don't you just follow me upstairs?" he said smoothly, taking Donna by the hand.

"Yay!" Donna clapped.

---

The next morning, Donna woke up feeling completely off. "It's probably just the hangover…" she rationalized. But it didn't just feel like a hangover, there was another odd feeling that she couldn't place. And it kind of bothered her that she couldn't remember anything that had happened. "I'm just being paranoid." Donna shook her head in disgust and forced herself to get out of bed and get dressed.

While she was picking out her outfit for the day – a plaid shirt and a pair of jeans – Donna looked out her window and saw the skinny boy next door shooting hoops again. She felt strangely guilty for ditching him the night before, even though they hadn't met until right before the party. _Great, paranoia and guilt. Not my favorite combination._ She sighed, then decided that after she got dressed, she was going to go talk to him.

---

Eric put up what must have been his fiftieth shot, and like the other forty-nine, it bounced off the rim and down the driveway. He bent down to pick it up, but when he stood, he was face-to-face with the same redhead who had been there last night.

"Hi." she said awkwardly.

"No, sorry, I'm not going to a party with you tonight." Eric commented.

"Yeah, about that, I'm sorry for ditching you." Donna said bluntly.

"Yeah, well, it's not like it's an unfamiliar feeling." Eric said sarcastically. "My dad's made it pretty clear that I'm not really worth anyone's time, especially when there's someone around who's good at sports."

Donna gave him a long look. "So _your_ dad is the guy who sprays Mr. Bonkers with his hose, I'm guessing."

"Uh, yeah, how'd you guess?" Eric said sarcastically.

"Well, you made him sound like he's not the most pleasant person…" Donna pointed out.

"Yeah, he's not, he's not." Eric agreed, shaking his head.

"Um, anyways, can I take a few shots with you?" Donna asked awkwardly.

"Sure," Eric tossed her the ball. She put it up and banked it. A perfect shot.

"Betcha can't do that." Donna challenged.

"Oh, come on, I can_ so _do that." Eric rolled his eyes. Donna passed him the ball. He shot it, and… once again, it bounced off the rim and down the driveway.

Donna caught it. "Wanna try again?" she grinned evilly. "I still don't think you can make it. I'm a girl, and I've got a better shot than you!"

"Aw, give me the ball!" Eric commanded. Donna threw it to him. He shot it, and… "Crap!"

Donna sighed. "Okay, skinny boy, if you want, I can come over here sometime and teach you how to _not_ embarrass yourself on the basketball court."

Eric's face lit. "Seriously?" Maybe he _did_ have a chance, after all. Or at least to make a decent friend, so he wouldn't have his dad constantly riding his ass to join the football team to 'get out of the house.' "That would be great.," he said sincerely.

"Okay, well, I'll see you later then." Donna said, and she disappeared back toward her house.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the reviews, everyone. Sorry it took so long to post, I've been super busy with school and stuff, and it was hard for me to get this chapter done, since this chapter is mostly a filler so I can make a smooth transition to the next part of the story. Anyways, just bear with me and keep reviewing. :

The first thing Donna heard when she walked into Point Place High School the Monday after the party was someone yelling, "It's her!" This was followed by a chorus of hurried whispers.

_What the hell is going on?_ Donna looked behind her to see if someone else was behind her. Nobody was there. _So they must be talking about me… Why would they be talking about me? I've never done anything interesting enough to make me the big gossip target for the day…_

"Oh my God, I heard that too!" Donna heard someone say a bit loudly. She turned towards the voice.

"What did you hear?" Donna asked, genuinely curious.

The girl snickered. "You don't remember?" She and her friends were silent until Donna walked away, and then they began whispering again.

As Donna walked down the hall to her locker, she felt the way she assumed Farrah Fawcett would feel as she walked down the red carpet. Except nobody here admired Donna Pinciotti, they just stared. Maybe it was less of a walk down the red carpet, and more of a death march.

_What the hell!_ Donna thought as she approached her locker and spun the dial on her lock.

"Hi!" A short brunette bounced up to her.

"Um, hi?" Donna said tentatively. "Um, do you know why all these people seem to be so interested in me?"

"Nope," the girl said cheerfully. "So about shopping, I was thinking maybe we could go this weekend, maybe Saturday, so we have all day to work on you."

"Excuse me, but what the hell are you talking about?" Donna stared at the girl. She vaguely remembered seeing her somewhere, but she couldn't remember exactly where. And she definitely didn't remember ever making plans to go shopping with her. For God's sake, Donna had never made plans to go shopping with _anyone_.

The girl looked hurt for a split second, but the look on her face was soon replaced with one of haughtiness. "Look, if you didn't want to go, you should have just said something when I mentioned it at the party," she said snottily.

The mention of the party sparked Donna's memory. "Oh, my God, I'm so sorry… It's just that I was kind of totally wasted that night. I don't remember much of anything."

A girl standing next to Donna overheard her and gasped, then started whispering a mile a minute to her friends. Donna turned to face her. "_What_ is everyone's problem?!" she demanded. The girl giggled and her friends smirked at Donna. "God!" Donna said, exasperated.

The brunette was still standing beside Donna. "Okay, well, since you don't remember anything I'll have to refresh your memory." she said, as energetic as she'd been when she'd first approached Donna. "My name is Jackie Burkhart, I'm from the richest family in Point Place and possibly the greater Kenosha area, I love shopping and ABBA…"

Donna rolled her eyes and tried her hardest to tune Jackie out and listen in to the conversations about her that were happening all around her.

"…Oops, and I have to go meet someone about a cheerleading practice! See you Saturday!" Jackie finished, and was instantly gone. A more familiar face replaced her.

"Hi, Kelso." Donna smiled. Even though a rumor – no doubt a nasty one – was going around the school, Donna was sure that the boy she had met at the party on Saturday would have no trouble cheering her up. "Wrestle with any dogs lately?"

Kelso gasped. "Donna, are you like a totally hot mind-reading robot or something? I was just gonna tell you this story about how I saw the old lady again!"

Donna laughed as Kelso told his story. "Wow, you really seem to have a great time."

"I know! Like, I have it all, man! I get to wrestle with dogs, I don't have a job, I go to great parties and pick up hot chicks! Yeah, that's the good life, my friend." Kelso said wisely.

The girl who was standing next to Donna saw Kelso standing there and snickered. "Hello, Michael," she smirked.

"Leah?! Why don't you ever call me anymore?" Kelso exclaimed.

Leah glanced at Donna and back at Kelso. "I don't like manipulative bastards, Michael."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" Donna glared at Leah.

"Oh, my God, I cannot believe that you don't remember anything that happened that night." Leah rolled her eyes.

"Kelso! What's she talking about?!" Donna demanded.

"Oh, uh, I dunno! Damn, Leah, why do you have to go trying to make me look bad?!" Kelso said innocently.

"Oh, shut up." Leah rolled her eyes and stalked off, her friends in tow.

"Kelso. What's going on? Everyone's talking about _me_." Donna said suspiciously. "I can't remember anything that happened that night. Is there something you're not telling me?"

---

Kelso weighed his options. He could tell Donna what had happened, which would get her totally pissed, and he'd never have a chance with her. He could pretend he didn't know anything, but when she found out, she'd be even more pissed. Either way, she was going to end up getting pissed. So why not pick the option where he got some more time with her?

"Damn, Donna, how would I know?" Kelso asked. "Would I lie to you?" he used his puppy dog eyed face.

Donna sighed. "I guess not."

_Damn, this girl doesn't have any experience at all!_ Kelso thought, grinning at his luck. Most girls would be totally onto him by now, super-pissed that he was lying to them. But Donna didn't have a clue.

"So-" Donna began. The shrill sound of the warning bell interrupted her. "I guess I'll see you later, 'kay?" But Kelso was headed down the hall already.

He saw a curly-haired guy wearing a beat up denim jacket and aviators just walking in the door as the bell rang. "What do you want?" he demanded as Kelso approached him.

"You got your stash with you?" Kelso asked, cutting to the chase.

"Why?" the guy asked warily. "Look, I'm not stupid. I know the cops are after me. You could just be one of them."

Kelso looked shocked. "You think I'm smart enough to be a cop? Awesome!" He imagined the possibilities.

"_Oh, no, girls! It's the cops!" a blonde, who resembled Pam Macy, gasped._

"_No! He's going to interrupt our super-sexy threesome!" a petite brunette who looked quite similar to Jackie exclaimed._

"_Maybe he just wants to join us!" a Donna-like redhead suggested._

"_Yay!" the three girls clapped and cheered, jumping up and down in slow motion._

"That would be _awesome_!" Kelso nodded, grinning. "I should so be a cop."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. What do you want?" the curly-haired guy folded his arms and glared at Kelso.

"Can I buy some of your stash off of you?" Kelso asked.

"Tell you what. I'll sell some if you'll use it over there in that closet. And share." the guy offered.

"That sounds fair." Kelso nodded. "I'm Kelso."

"I'm Hyde." _And you're a dumbass,_ Hyde thought. _He's going to buy some stuff off of me, and then turn around and let me use it anyways? That's like paying me to use it! Man, I need to keep this guy around._

A few minutes later, the two guys were huddled amongst random mops and brooms in the janitor's closet. Hyde sat on an upside-down bucket.

"Man, why don't they put, like, chairs in here or something?" Kelso asked. "Where are we supposed to sit?"

"Kelso, man, I don't think they really encourage this." Hyde pointed out.

"Well, why not? This is great! The principal should try this, maybe then he would loosen up enough that he wouldn't give me detention for making slingshots in study hall and then using them to shoot squirrels when I'm skipping math." Kelso said.

Hyde laughed. "Man, you're baked."

"Baked? Yeah, I am!" Kelso laughed too. "You know what sounds really good right now? Cake!"

"Yeah, cake is good." Hyde agreed. "You know, I think this is better way to spend my time than learning about the Industrial Revolution in history class. I mean, the Industrial Revolution was just a way for big business to increase their power and totally corrupt the government, man!"

"Uh huh." Kelso nodded absent-mindedly while examining his hand. "Whoa, I have really nice hands." he commented. "Don't I have really nice hands? And my cheekbones are really, like… I have great bone structure!"

"Did your mommy tell you that?" Hyde asked, sounding bored.

"No!" Kelso defended himself. "Well… yeah." he admitted, laughing.

---

Somehow, Donna managed to make it through the day without punching everyone she saw talking about her. She also somehow managed to get through the day without anyone telling her what was being said. Every time someone came close to telling her, Kelso would suddenly remember something he had to show her, and drag her away. _I feel like I should be suspicious… but he said he wouldn't lie to me… and I trust him, right? But why do I trust him? I barely know him!_

Donna was beginning to hate herself for over thinking. By the time she got home, she was about ready to scream. And she knew the perfect person to unload her ranting on.

---

This time, Eric saw the redhead approaching. But he'd rather not have, considering she looked super-pissed. And redheads were supposed to have terrible tempers, weren't they?

"I need to talk to you." Donna said, sounding angry.

"What did I do?" Eric asked warily. "I've barely seen you since that party, and even then, you got rid of _me_, not the other way around. So I should be the angry one!"

"I'm not mad at you. I just need someone to talk to." Donna explained.

"Why don't you go talk to Kelso?" Eric asked bitterly, still sore about having been ditched by his date for an airheaded prettyboy.

"Because Kelso is an ass, and he would probably try to make me feel better by telling me about the time he got a grape stuck up his nose." Donna said, sounding exasperated. "You, on the other hand… well, you just seem like you'd listen."

Eric was silent for a moment. Donna seemed like she genuinely was interested in talking to him, if only to blow off some steam. And she seemed like she needed to do some serious ranting, and fast, or she might go off the deep end. "Okay, go." he relented.

"Well, that night at that party, I got _seriously_ wasted. I can't remember anything that happened after you left. Then today, I walk into school, and everyone was talking…" Donna began. She alternated between yelling in frustration and just sounding confused as she confided her feelings to Eric. Five minutes later, she finally finished.

Eric was silent again. "Wow."

Donna attempted a laugh. "Yeah. I have no freakin' clue what's going on."

"Donna, look. I don't think Kelso's right for you." Eric said seriously.

Donna tried to laugh again. "How would you know? You barely know me."

Eric shrugged. "Well, I don't think Kelso's right for anyone. He's kind of an idiot, if you hadn't noticed yet."

Donna laughed for real this time. She instantly wondered why she wasn't defending Kelso. Weren't they together? Or were they… God, she really didn't know _anything_. "Yeah, that's true. He seems kind of like a pervert, too… he tells me all about all the girls he's 'done it' with. Who tells their girlfriend that kind of thing?"

"So you two are officially together?" Eric asked, looking surprised. "I never really pictured a guy like that settling down with anyone."

"Yeah, I don't know where we are, really. I don't know if he's serious about me, or if it was just another one of his stupid flings." Donna sighed. "Wait, why am I telling you all this?"

Eric gave a little laugh. "I really have no idea. So didn't you say something about teaching me how to shoot so I actually make some baskets…?" Eric reminded her, trying to change the subject to a less tense one.

Donna grinned and shook her head. "Okay, come here…"


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry it's taking so long between updates... end-of-school stuff. Once school's out, updates will hopefully come much quicker!

---

A few days later, Eric was at the Hub – alone, as usual – when he overheard a few girls gossiping. _Girls. Always talking about who wore the ugliest sweater, and who the fattest cheerleader is. I don't get the obsession. _

"Yeah, that Kelso guy did it with Donna Pinciotti at that party, didn't you hear?" a rat-faced girl was saying. Eric listened in horror. Donna and Kelso had already done it? _But Donna doesn't seem like the kind of girl who would do that just after meeting a guy! Damn my luck, if I'd had better timing that could've been me. She'd known me about the same amount of time as she'd known Kelso, and I was even her official date! Damn. Why do I always mess these things up?_

While Eric was busy cursing his bad luck, he suddenly remembered what Donna had told him. _'I can't remember anything that happened after you left.'_ He remembered her saying those exact words. "Oh my God, she doesn't remember _that_?!" he said, horrified, under his breath.

Donna was going to die when she found out.

---

That afternoon, Donna appeared in the Formans' driveway around five. It had become something of a ritual: she would come out to rant about whatever she needed to rant about to Eric, and in exchange she would help him improve his shot.

"Hey." Eric said cautiously, still trying to figure out how he would break the news, and wondering if she remembered. She was bound to remember sometime, right?

"Hey." Donna said, looking unhappy. _Did she remember?_ Eric worried.

"W-what's up?" he asked slowly.

"Ugh, nothing, really, just that Jackie girl wants me to go shopping with her. She looked like she'd either cry or pull a gun on me if I said no, so… no basketball for me today. Sorry." Donna looked genuinely apologetic.

"Hey, it's fine." Eric said, trying to hide his disappointment. His daily 'dates' with Donna had become something he looked forward to, if only for the couple of times that she would touch his hands to adjust their position when she was giving him shooting tips. At least this bought him more time, so that maybe he wouldn't have to be the one to tell her. Or at the very least, he'd have time to figure out what to say.

A black car pulled up. Jackie got out of the driver's seat and walked up the driveway. "Hi, Donna!" she said cheerfully.

"Eric! Sweep the driveway." Eric's father, Red, stepped outside. When he saw the two girls standing beside his son, he stared. "You have _girls_ here? You actually got girls to come see you? And not one, but _two_?"

"Uh, yeah…" Eric said cautiously.

Red smiled, one of those rare smiles that were actually kind-natured. "Well, good for you, son." He clapped Eric on the back. Unfortunately, though, the sentimental moment was over as soon as it had begun and Red's scowl returned. "But as soon as they're out of here, sweep the driveway." With that, Red returned inside.

"Your dad doesn't seem to think too highly of you." Donna observed.

"Well, if I were him, I'd be surprised too! I mean, a beautiful girl like me, and a… pretty-in-a-whore-kind-of-way girl like you, hanging around a skinny little thing like that? Come _on_, Donna, I'm surprised he didn't have a heart attack right then and there." Jackie countered.

"Oh, thanks." Eric rolled his eyes. "You should go chat with Red, I bet you two would get along well."

"Come on, Jackie, you're already a midget. You don't need to add 'bitch' to your résumé." Donna glared at her, feeling a need to defend Eric.

"Oh, but everyone already knows I'm a huge bitch, so I have a reputation to protect." Jackie smirked and walked towards her car.

Donna and Eric looked at each other. "Good luck." Eric mouthed.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Thanks." she mouthed back.

"_Donna!_" Jackie called impatiently. "Let's go!" Donna rolled her eyes again and followed Jackie.

"Have fun, girls!" Eric waved overenthusiastically until the car was out of sight. No sooner had the car left than a green and white Volkswagen van pulled up. A boy with brown feathered hair stepped out and sauntered towards Eric.

"Hey, Foreplay, what are you doing here?" Kelso asked.

"I _live_ here." Eric rolled his eyes.

Kelso's eyes widened. "You _live_ with _Donna?!_"

"No, I live next door to Donna." Eric explained.

"Oh. Well, you seen her?" Kelso asked.

"She just left with some Jackie girl. I think they went to the mall or something." Eric shrugged.

Kelso frowned. "Oh. You mind if I shoot a few hoops or something and wait for her?"

"I think she'll be a while." Eric said.

Kelso ignored him and picked up the ball. He shot it, and it bounced off the rim with a clang. _So I'm not the only guy on the planet who can't shoot,_ Eric thought. "I really need to talk to her." Kelso said.

"About what?" Eric asked, not really believing he'd get an answer.

"It's kind of, like, between me and Donna." Kelso said, as Eric had predicted. "But I'll tell you anyways. See, we were at that party… you remember, you were there. And she got kinda drunk. So she and I… you know. But see, she doesn't remember. And I'm kinda feeling like I should tell her, 'cause she's not doing anything with me anyways so it's not like it matters if she hates me, you know?"

_This guy is such an ass,_ Eric thought. "Why didn't you tell her before?"

"'Cause I thought I could get some!" Kelso rolled his eyes.

Eric shrugged. He had to admit, he was getting sick of being the only guy in Point Place who wasn't getting any, so even taking advantage of some drunk girl at a party wasn't sounding as unethical as it usually would.

Suddenly, a scruffy curly-haired guy hurled himself over the fence and into the driveway.

"Hey, Hyde!" Kelso waved.

"Why were you in my backyard?" Eric asked, bewildered.

"Sorry, man, I was toilet papering this guy's house 'cause I didn't think he was home, and then he came out and saw me, so I had to run. I think I lost him, though." Hyde explained, out of breath.

Kelso laughed.

"Hey! You never paid me!" Hyde remembered, glaring at Kelso.

"See, it's a funny story. I kinda don't have a job right now, so I was thinking maybe I could pay you in… I dunno, a couple years or something?" Kelso offered.

"Who are you?" Eric asked.

Hyde ignored him. "Kelso, man. If you don't pay me, how am I supposed to buy more?" he pointed out. Then he shrugged. "Screw that. I can just steal it from my mom."

"Who _are_ you?" Eric repeated.

This time, Hyde acknowledged him. "I'm Hyde, man."

Eric suddenly remembered. "Ohhh! You're the guy who got busted for cutting gym like thirty times last year and smoking in the coach's office!"

"Forty-eight times, actually." Hyde said proudly. "School record."

"So… what's it like?" Eric asked, curious.

"What's _what_ like, Forman?" Hyde asked matter-of-factly.

"You know…" Eric said, embarrassed for some reason to actually flat-out say what he meant. "Getting baked."

Kelso laughed. "Oh Foreplay, you're so young." he said wisely.

"Can't really describe it..." Hyde said.

---

Fifteen minutes later, smoke was swirling in the Formans' basement. Eric sat on the beat up old couch, Kelso on a lawn chair, and Hyde on a stool.

"Man, this is great!" Eric said giddily. "Normally I'd worry about my mom or dad coming down here and catching me… but now I just couldn't care less!"

"See, man, that's why the government is convincing all the older folks that this is bad. They know it'll make us happier, and they know that when we're happy, we'll see how crappy our lives are when we're following their rules." Hyde said wisely. "Did I tell you how some guy figured out how to make this car that runs on water?" He laughed. "It runs on _water_, man!"

"I like water." Kelso nodded.

"Water's good. But beer's better. Hey, Forman, go upstairs and get some beer." Hyde ordered.

"What?" Eric asked, genuinely confused.

"I said, go get us some beer." Hyde repeated.

"But if I get caught, my dad'll kill me!" Eric countered.

"Well…" Hyde shrugged. "That's a risk I'm willing to take." He slapped Eric on the back.

Eric considered the idea. He'd never thought for even a second about sneaking alcohol from his parents, mostly because he knew that Red might for once act on his threat to stick his foot in Eric's ass. But… if he did this, maybe these guys would actually hang around sometimes and Red would no longer be able to taunt Eric about how he never had any friends around.

"Okay, I'll be back." Eric decided. He ran up the stairs.

---

"I didn't think he'd actually do that." Hyde commented.

"I know! I was like, 'Why didn't Hyde tell _me_ to get the beer?'" Kelso laughed.

"Because it's Forman's house, moron. Do you even know where they _keep_ their beer?" Hyde said.

"I bet it's in the fridge… or maybe in the shower?" Kelso suggested.

"The _shower_, man?" Hyde shook his curly head.

"That's where I keep beer sometimes!" Kelso shrugged.

"But Kelso, man, you have to hide it. Forman's parents don't because they know Forman's too scared to take it." Hyde explained.

"Actually, I just like how it tastes after a few months sitting in there. I think it like absorbs the smell of my shampoo or something!" Kelso nodded.

"Whatever, man." Hyde said. His brain cells would start committing suicide if he kept talking to this guy.

Suddenly, someone burst through the door to the basement, slammed it shut behind him, and made a great deal of noise running down the stairs.

"Not very discreet, Forman." Hyde shook his head. Then he turned to look at Eric, who held up three cans of beer.

"He's alive!" Hyde proclaimed.

"Nice one, Forman!" Kelso grinned in anticipation of some ice-cold beer. Eric recognized this as the first time since he had met Kelso that Kelso hadn't referred to him as 'Foreplay.' That was an improvement, right?

Eric tossed a can to Hyde and a can to Kelso, keeping one for himself. They popped the cans open and started drinking.

"So, Forman, I didn't believe you'd actually do this." Hyde said approvingly.

"Well, Hyde, I'm a man of many mysteries." Eric said, leaning back on the couch.

---

"Oh my God, Donna!" Jackie screeched for what must have been the millionth time. "Aren't these clogs _cute_?"

Donna sighed. It was all she could do to keep from strangling Jackie. "Yeah, Jackie, can you just buy them so we can get home? My feet hurt."

"Hm, maybe that's because you have more foot that has to work when you're walking… see, my feet are dainty, so I've never had that problem!" Jackie said cheerfully before turning to the salesman and asking for the clogs in a size five.

Donna rolled her eyes. "Jackie, come on. Can we go home?"

"Oh, _fine_," Jackie relented huffily. "But you have to introduce me to that cute neighbor boy," she compromised.

For some reason, Donna felt a pang of jealousy. _Whatever. He's my friend, I guess… so that wasn't jealousy, it was me being protective. He would hate Jackie, and besides, she's bad for his mental health._ "Weren't you just saying how skinny and weird he was when you came to pick me up?"

"Yeah, but that's how I am around people I like." Jackie explained. "I'm supposed to be seeing someone else, but we haven't actually gone out yet. He hasn't even called me. So I'm totally free!" Jackie threw her arms in the air.

"Okay, whatever." Donna rolled her eyes. "Take me home, and I'll find Eric and introduce you to him."

"Deal." Jackie nodded. "Oh, yayyy, I'm so excited!" she clapped.

"To meet Eric?" Donna asked, bewildered.

"_No_, lumberjack." Jackie rolled her eyes.

"Then why-" Donna began.

"Here you are, ma'am." The salesman presented Jackie with her clogs.

"Oh." Donna rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm excited too, this means we can finally get out of here!"

"Okay, okay." Jackie said. With that, she paid for the clogs and the two polar opposites left the mall together.

---

So what did you all think? Reviews are what motivate me to keep writing. :


	5. Chapter 5

I liked writing this chapter, it's got a lot of Kelso-related drama and some other relationship drama in it. Hopefully you'll all like it too.

---

"Hi, um, is Eric around?"

Red Forman froze, his head in the refrigerator as he searched for a beer. _That sounds like a girl. What is it with girls and that dumbass today?_

He could hear his wife, Kitty, replying in the other room. "Oh, hi! It's Donna, right? Don't you live next door? Tell your parents not to be such strangers, Red and I haven't seen them in years!" Kitty laughed. "Well, isn't this just so cute! Eric's got a little girlfriend! He's probably down in the basement, I'll show you…"

Kitty pushed through the swinging door, two girls in tow. Red recognized them as the same tall redhead and petite brunette who had been talking to Eric in the driveway earlier.

"…Now this is just so cute!" Kitty repeated. "Eric's finally hanging out with girls…"

"It's a relief." Red interrupted. "We were starting to think he was gay."

---

"So Forman, you've lived next to _Donna Pinciotti_ for what, ten years or something? And you've never gotten _anywhere_ with her?" Hyde was saying.

"No, I didn't even know her name until a couple of days ago," Eric shrugged.

"Yeah, that's what they all say." Kelso said wisely.

"_They_ who?" Eric asked.

"Look, Forman. If you like guys, you like guys. You can't help it." Hyde smirked.

"No! What? Come on, you guys." Eric pleaded.

"Hey." The guys heard a deeper female voice from the stairs. They all turned to look.

"Donna?" Kelso stared.

"Hi, Kelso." Donna rolled her eyes.

"Michael?" Jackie gaped at him.

"Damn." Kelso said, suddenly flustered. "Hey, Jackie…"

"You two know each other?" Jackie, Donna, and Kelso all said at the same time. "Whatever." they all said in unison.

"Uh, yeah, this seems awkward." Eric stated the obvious.

"Not really. Well, yeah, kinda." Kelso said.

"Why is it awkward, Michael?" Jackie glared at him.

"Well, Jackie-" Kelso began.

"I mean, sure, you didn't call me like you promised to after the party. But that's not really _awkward_, is it? It just shows how _stupid_ you are, Michael." Jackie said dramatically, obviously upset about Kelso's forgetfulness.

"Wait, _what_?" Donna demanded. "What party?"

"Cat's party, _duh_, Donna. That party we met at." Jackie rolled her eyes.

"Kelso!" Donna yelled.

Eric looked nervous as he anticipated the inevitable: the revealing to Donna of the events that had taken place at the party… and not just Kelso's stupid love triangle.

"What's wrong, Forman?" Hyde whispered, smirking. "I love a good lovers' quarrel."

Eric forced a laugh.

"W-what, Donna?" Kelso stuttered.

"You took _me_ out that night!" Donna reminded him angrily.

"_What_?" Jackie demanded. "Michael! You were going to call _me_, Michael! Me, me, me, M-E, Michael! We had a _thing_!"

"Well, sorry, Jackie, but Donna and I _did things_ so I think that if I remember to call anyone, and I never do so it doesn't matter anyways, it should be her." Kelso reasoned. "Right, Donna?"

The color drained out of Donna's face. She knew Michael Kelso well enough to know that by "doing things," he didn't mean just making out. "Kelso. Let's go back to my house."

"All right!" Kelso cheered. "To your room, right?" he clarified.

"No, Kelso, I think we need to talk." Donna said. She quickly left the basement.

"What's up with her?" Kelso asked. Everyone ignored him, some giving him the cold shoulder, and others simply not caring, and he followed Donna.

Without Kelso's stupid, random remarks, and after the drama of the past few minutes, a heavy silence filled the basement.

Eric glanced at Jackie, who had made herself right at home, sinking into the couch. _Why's she sticking around? Isn't she Donna's friend?_ "Awwwk-warrrd." Eric sang out.

"You got that right." Hyde nodded, discreetly checking out the petite brunette who had invaded the basement. _Then again, I can't really complain about people butting in. I only met this Forman kid earlier today._ Despite the fact that her shrill voice annoyed the hell out of him, Hyde had to grudgingly admit, she was kinda hot. But it didn't matter, he would never want to date someone like her, and he had a feeling that she would never date someone like him.

"So, Eric." Jackie began. "Donna says you like to play basketball."

_Donna was talking about me?_ "Well, not really. I just play in the driveway sometimes. It's not like I'm on the school team or anything." Eric said modestly.

"You should try out!" Jackie suggested.

"Me?" Eric chuckled. "Are you insane? They'd pick me apart."

"You're probably better than you think you are. I mean, you're so skinny. You must at least be fast." Jackie pointed out. "And besides… the basketball players always hang out with the cheerleaders."

"Oh. Well, that's… cool." Eric said, not picking up on Jackie's reference to herself and him, specifically.

"Yeah, Eric, and _I'm_ a cheerleader, you know." Jackie emphasized.

"That sounds… fun?" Eric said politely, still not picking up on the signals. Hyde snorted with suppressed laughter. "_What_?" Eric demanded.

"Nothing, man." Hyde smirked.

Jackie sighed in frustration. _Boys are so stupid!_ She yawned loudly. "Wow, I'm tired…" She pretended to fall asleep, and let her head fall onto Eric's shoulder. Eric immediately jumped, allowing Jackie to fall over.

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed, having been caught completely off guard. Hyde snorted with laughter. Jackie turned bright red.

_Oh, my god. I'm resorting to tactics as lame as the yawn-and-grab. That's something a girl like Donna or Big Rhonda is supposed to do! And Eric's not even rich!_ "Well, I should get going home," she said quickly before practically sprinting out the door.

Once she was gone, Hyde hit Eric on the arm. "Ow! What the hell, Hyde?" Eric glared, holding his victimized arm.

"What is your _problem_, man?" Hyde demanded.

"What's _my_ problem?" Eric repeated. "I'm not the one who goes around punching people!"

"Forman, it's not a problem if you deserve it." Hyde reasoned.

"What?" Eric demanded, completely confused.

"Forman, man. Only Helen freakin' Keller could miss all those signals that chick was sending." Hyde snorted.

"What are you talking about, Hyde?" Eric asked incredulously. "You're crazy. She wasn't…" he replayed the whole scene in his head. "Ohhhhh!" he nodded in understanding.

"Yeah. Forman, you totally just screwed your chances with a totally hot girl." Hyde shook his head. "Nice move."

"Hey, there could be hope!" Eric said defensively. "And besides… hey, wait, you think she's hot?" It was Eric's turn to smirk. "Sorry, Hyde, but I don't think that cheerleaders usually date guys who set a school record for most skipped gym classes."

"Yeah, and I don't think they date scrawny dillholes who couldn't pick up a signal or two to save their life, either." Hyde pointed out.

Eric sighed. "Point made."

---

"Kelso. What are you saying?" Donna demanded quietly.

"I'm saying that after we'd had some – okay, a _lot_ – of drinks I asked you if you wanted to go upstairs." Kelso said. "But you said 'yes'!" he reminded her.

"_Kelso!_ I was _drunk_, I probably didn't even understand what you were saying!" Donna yelled. "How could you do something like that when I was completely wasted?!"

"Uhh, 'cause you're super hot and I wanted to get some?" Kelso suggested.

"Well why didn't you take advantage of _Jackie_ instead?" Donna said nastily. "See, Kelso, _that's_ what kills me! Not only did you take advantage of me, you also had plans to go out with some other girl later!"

"Yeah, and plus I made out with Pam Macy while you were out getting us some more beer." Kelso nodded.

"KELSO!" Donna screamed.

Kelso began to back towards the door. Redheads were always said to have _terrible_ tempers, and he'd apparently done enough to Donna to put her on a warpath. "Look, Donna, it's not that bad. At least it was me, and not, say, Forman. I mean, it's _me._ I've been called the Apollo Rocket of Love before by people that I've done it with. Forman wouldn't even know what he was doing." Kelso snorted.

"Kelso, this is _not_ about Eric, okay? This is about _you_." Donna said.

"Well, can't we make it about Eric? That would be a _lot_ easier." Kelso countered.

"You just don't get it, do you?!" Donna threw her hands in the air.

"Uhh… let's do it?" Kelso tried.

"Get out." Donna said menacingly.

"What?! Donna, I promise I'll call you this time!" Kelso pleaded.

"I said, get _out_!" Donna yelled.

Kelso slowly backed within a couple of feet of the door before turning and running away.

Donna collapsed on her bed, exhausted from her screaming fight with Kelso and the drama of the day. She sobbed for a few minutes, mourning for the loss of one of the most special moments of her life, before falling into a deep sleep.

---

Eric and Hyde were playing cards in the basement when the door opened. Kelso stepped inside. Both Eric and Hyde immediately slapped their cards – face down, of course – on the circular table.

"Did you tell her everything?" Eric asked, looking worried.

"Yeah." Kelso said pitifully. "I don't wanna talk about it."

"Well, good. We don't want to hear-" Hyde began typical snide reply.

"She just yelled at me! I don't get what she's so mad about." Kelso shook his head, telling his story despite his just saying that he didn't want to. "I mean, it's _me_ we're talking about. It's not like she did it with, like, well, Forman."

Eric glared at him. "Look, man. I don't want to hear it, okay? You're a total moron who takes advantage of drunk girls at parties, but you're going to turn this around on me?"

"I didn't take advantage of her!" Kelso exclaimed defensively. "She agreed to it!"

Hyde looked annoyed. He was getting sick of hearing Kelso's stupid reasoning and excuses. "Kelso, man. She was drunk. You took advantage of her. End of story. Now, I'm not saying that's _wrong_, because that would make me a hypocrite. But can you guys talk about something else now? I'm sick of hearing about this crap."

Eric and Kelso both glared at Hyde.

"How can you say that's not wrong?!" Eric exclaimed.

"And how can you say I took advantage of her?!" Kelso demanded.

"Okay. From now on, I'm going to throw something at anyone who mentions any of this." Hyde said. "Starting… now."

The basement was silent.

"That Jackie girl needs to come back. She talked enough for all of us." Eric finally said.

"Oh, thanks, Forman. Bring _that_ up again. What, are you going to say I took advantage of her, too?" Kelso glared.

Hyde threw his half-eaten Popsicle at Kelso.

"Hyde!" Kelso exclaimed, trying to wipe half-melted fruit juice off his shirt. "Damn, Hyde, you stained it!"

"I warned you." Hyde shrugged. "That time, I threw a Popsicle."

Eric laughed and Hyde smirked as Kelso sulked and tried to clean his shirt. "I'm going home. My mom has a rule: if I stain something and don't get it back to her soon enough that she can clean it, I don't get dessert for two weeks." Kelso ran back outside.

Eric and Hyde burst out laughing again. "Sounds like Kelso's afraid of Mommy." Hyde snorted.

Eric laughed. "Yeah. What would he have to be afraid of? All my mom does is cook for me and cut the crusts off my sandwiches. Ooh, maybe his mom would attack him and force-feed him a peanut butter sandwich! Oh no!" Eric waved his arms in mock fear.

Hyde's blood boiled. He couldn't understand how Eric, at seventeen years old, could possibly be so naive. He'd never tried pot. He'd never stolen beer from his parents' fridge. He didn't pick up on Jackie's signals, which could only have been more obvious if she'd put "I LIKE ERIC FORMAN" in neon letters on a billboard. And now he was acting like parents were god-like figures who could do no wrong. _Do you live under a rock or something_? Hyde wanted to ask. Instead, he just shrugged. Normally, he wouldn't care about hurting someone's feelings or something, but the free food and beer at Forman's house was something he could definitely get used to. So for now, he'd have to at least try not to make too many nasty comments.

But Hyde's anger wasn't subsiding. _Forman, man, my mom used to hit me,_ he pictured himself saying. _Forman, my mom's boyfriends used to abuse me. How's that for a reason to be afraid of your mom?_ Yeah. Forman wouldn't even believe him. He was too far gone in his utopia where moms were there to cut the crusts off your sandwiches and dads were around to cheer on their kids at baseball games. _Then again, Forman isn't exactly an athlete,_ Hyde reminded himself. But that wasn't the point.

"I gotta go." Hyde said, abruptly getting up and leaving.

"Okay…" Eric said, confused as to why this newfound friend – could he really call Hyde a friend yet? – had left so suddenly. With no one left in the basement, Eric left too and headed to the driveway to shoot hoops.

---

Donna took a deep breath before walking up the driveway to approach Eric. _I know I can trust him. He always listens. And I need to talk about all this to someone._

"H-hi." Eric said nervously when he saw Donna approaching. "Uh, so, are you okay and everything?"

"Not at all." Donna said honestly, sighing. "I mean, I was actually beginning to think that Jackie and I could become friends. Then I find out that Kelso wanted her at the same time that… you know. And even though I know that's only Kelso being a fucking dumbass, I'm still like super pissed at Jackie. And then the whole thing with Kelso… that's bad enough in itself."

"Yeah, well, at least it wasn't, say, me." Eric rolled his eyes.

"Oh, he tried that excuse with you guys, too?" Donna looked practically murderous. "Ugh, I'd actually rather that it _had_ been you. At least _you_ don't seem like the kind of guy who would be planning to call someone else afterwards."

Under usual circumstances, Eric would have made some kind of remark like, "Really? Then let's do it now!" But this was hardly usual, and he had a feeling that a comment like that wouldn't help matters. Instead, he simply agreed. "Yeah, I wouldn't."

"Ugh, he's such a dillhole, you know?" Donna vented.

"I know. I can't believe him. And he kept trying to convince us that he hadn't done anything wrong. I actually think he might have been dropped on his head." Eric rolled his eyes.

Donna managed a small laugh. "That _would_ explain a lot." She felt a sudden rush of emotion. She was so grateful to this boy who had always been there for her through the past few weeks, even though she had been so rude to him at that fateful party. "Look, about Cat's party… I'm really sorry that I ditched you for Kelso. Now more than ever," she snorted.

"Yeah… Well, you didn't know something like this would happen." Eric shrugged it off.

"No, but I shouldn't have asked you to be my date and then left you. That was what I was apologizing for." Donna said guiltily. She and Eric locked eyes. _Why not? He's so sweet. He would make a good boyfriend, _Donna thought to herself. She worked up the courage to make a move and-

"Eric!" Red shouted. He had stepped outside. "Didn't I tell you to sweep the driveway?"

Eric tore his eyes away from Donna and looked towards his father. "Yeah, Dad, I'll do it right now." He turned back to Donna. "Well, if I put this off any longer, Red's gonna kill me. So I guess I'll see you tomorrow." He turned and headed towards the garage.

"Yeah, bye." Donna said, shaking her head as she walked down the driveway. _What was that all about?_

_ ---_

So what did you think? Review, please, I only got like two reviews on the last chapter!_  
_


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks as usual for the reviews! Updates will probably be coming quickly now as the school year is winding down, and now that I'm really into the story. Anyways, hopefully you'll like this chapter. I did some research for some of it i.e. the spider flower, so it took even more effort than usual, so be sure to review.

---

In the weeks that followed, Eric and his parents – or, well, his mother – learned to expect Hyde and Kelso's presence. Donna and Jackie stopped by every so often, but they mostly seemed to keep to themselves, probably because Kelso was usually around Eric and Hyde.

Kitty loved Eric's new friends. With Eric growing up and Laurie gone, Kitty was beginning to feel a little less needed. But with this new group of teenagers hanging around, constantly hungry, she felt as though she had a purpose again. They gave Red something new to grumble about – he was always complaining that they gave him a headache, not to mention distracted Eric from his chores – but Kitty felt that being able to cook for all these kids was worth the extra ranting.

Kitty was putting balls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet when Red stomped into the kitchen. "Kitty, you're baking for them _again_?" Red sighed.

"Well, yes, Red, I am." Kitty nodded, not looking up from her work.

"Kitty, they're like rodents! If you keep feeding them, we'll never get rid of them!" Red groaned.

"Well, I think it's good that Eric has found some kids to hang around with." Kitty said, defending her son as usual. "And after all, aren't you the one who's always complaining about him being home with you all the time?"

"Well, yeah. But I wanted him to do something like, say, join a foreign exchange program. That way, he could make some new friends, and they'd be on the other side of the globe in their straw huts, so they wouldn't be in my basement!" Red grumbled before stalking back into the living room.

"Hello, Mrs. Forman?" A young man with an accent and a deep tan poked his head into the kitchen. "I have finished with the yard work."

Kitty stared at him. "Who are you?"

"Mr. Red hired me to mow the lawn," the young man answered.

Kitty stared at him in confusion a moment longer before calling for her husband. "Red!"

Red pushed back through the swinging door and into the kitchen, complaining again. "Kitty, this had better be important, because I'm watching the Bucks game, and it looks like they might actually _win_ this one!"

"This young man says he was hired to mow the lawn?" Kitty pointed towards the sliding glass door.

"Oh, yeah, I saw him wandering around the neighborhood the other day and asked him if he wanted to make some money." Red shrugged. "Give him five bucks and then he should be out of here." Red returned to his game.

"Well, young man, if you'd like to stay a while longer, I'm baking cookies, and you can have a few if you'd like," Kitty offered.

"Do they have chocolate in them?" he demanded.

"They're double chocolate chip," Kitty nodded.

"Then I am in!" the boy grinned.

"Well, good!" Kitty smiled back. "You look like you're about my son Eric's age, you could hang around with him and his friends while you wait for the cookies. He's down in the basement. Here, I can show you the way…"

---

"So, who do you think has better boobs…" Eric began. When he saw his mother coming down the stairs, he finished quickly with, "The Virgin Mary, or Mary Magdalene? Such important figures in the Bible, which we were just reading!"

Hyde snorted and shook his head at Eric's pathetic attempt at a cover-up.

Kitty pretended not to have heard the beginning of Eric's sentence. "Eric, this is…" she looked at the accented young man for help. He whispered his name in Kitty's ear. "I can't pronounce that. I can't even remember the whole thing!" Kitty let out her signature laugh.

"I am a foreign exchange student," the boy explained.

"Well, you kids have fun!" Kitty said, going back upstairs to put the cookies in the oven.

"Okay… what should we call him, then, if his name's not going to work?" Eric asked, bewildered.

"Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea!" Kelso raised his hand.

"Yes, Kelso?" Hyde said in his best imitation of a kindergarten teacher.

"We could call him Kelso! We could name him after me!" Kelso said, pointing at himself. "Isn't that a good idea? I'm so smart," he grinned.

"Kelso. Don't you think that could get a little confusing?" Eric pointed out.

"Yeah…" Kelso agreed, his grin fading. But it soon returned. "Ooh! We could call him Kelso _Junior_!"

Hyde groaned and rolled his eyes. "We can call him Fes. 'F' for foreign, 'E' for exchange, and 'S' for student."

"Or, we could spell it F-e-_z_. Like the city in Morocco!" Kelso nodded enthusiastically.

Eric and Hyde stared at him. "How can you be so stupid and still know things like that?" Eric finally demanded.

Kelso just shrugged and grinned.

"Okay, so new guy, we're gonna call you Fez." Hyde said decisively.

"Okay. So I am Fez!" Fez nodded.

"Where'd my mom find you?" Eric asked.

"Oh, Mr. Red hired me to mow your lawn." Fez explained. "Wait, you are Eric, yes?"

"Uh, yeah…" Eric replied.

"You owe me ten dollars!" Fez stuck his hand out, palm up, towards Eric, demanding money.

"What? Why?" Eric asked, confused.

"Eric! That girl you met last night was just a guy in drag?!" Kelso exclaimed. "Well, a whore's a whore. Pay up, Forman!"

"Shut up, Kelso!" Eric said.

"Burn!" Kelso called excitedly.

Eric ignored him. "Fez, why do I owe you ten dollars?"

"Mr. Red told me that since he was hiring me to take over one of your chores, you would be paying me. Now pay up!" Fez commanded again.

"Look, man, I don't have ten bucks! Red didn't tell me he was hiring a lawn guy and that I'm supposed to be the one paying for it!" Eric said, the pitch of his voice slowly rising.

"Fine," Fez pouted. "But I wanted to go buy candy, and now I am broke so I can't."

"Sorry, man." Eric shrugged. "You can have a Popsicle if you want," he offered.

"Oh! Do you have Fudgesicles?" Fez asked excitedly.

"Yeah, they're in the Deep Freeze." Eric pointed to the freezer. Fez ran over to it as excited as a small child – or, well, Fez – in a candy store.

"Hey, Fez, toss me a Popsicle, too." Kelso said.

Fez threw a Popsicle to Kelso. It went over Kelso's head, and when he went to reach for it, he tipped over backwards and went over the back of his chair.

Eric, Hyde, and Fez burst out laughing. "I am glad I am not Kelso Junior… people may have thought that I was as stupid as _him_," Fez said, relieved. This caused Hyde and Eric to burst out laughing again, and Kelso let out an indignant noise.

"Fine! I can see I'm not wanted here!" Kelso said huffily, and he stomped out the door. "My mom wanted me home by four thirty anyways." With that, he slammed the door and left.

A few minutes later, Donna arrived in the basement with Jackie in tow. "God, we thought he'd never leave!"

"What, were you watching for him to leave?" Eric joked. "Am I that irresistible? You just couldn't stay away."

"Yeah." Donna and Jackie agreed in unison. They stared at each other; each wondering if the other meant anything by their response. "Haha, kidding," Donna laughed nervously.

"Yeah, me too," Jackie added, remembering the disaster of her attempts at subtly hinting her feelings to Eric the day before.

Hyde smirked. "Jackie, you're so cute when you're lying. Why, just yesterday-"

"So Eric!" Jackie cut him off. "I'm, uh, hungry."

"Okay…?" Eric said, confused about the girls' response to his joke. "Uh, there's Popsicles and stuff in the freezer."

"Ew!" Jackie wrinkled her nose. "I don't want a Popsicle, it would melt and make a big sticky mess. I'll have a salad, iceberg lettuce – no spinach or other vegetables mixed in – with raspberry vinaigrette."

Everyone stared at her. "Wait, what?" Eric asked.

"You heard me. Iceberg with raspberry vinaigrette!" Jackie repeated. She snapped her fingers. "Now hop to it!"

"Uh, I'll see what I can do…" Eric rolled his eyes and went upstairs. At least his venture into the kitchen would save him from more Jackie time.

"Hey, Mom, we wouldn't by any chance have iceberg lettuce and raspberry vinaigrette… whatever that is…" Eric said.

Kitty stared at Eric in confusion. "What?"

"Yeah, that's what _I_ said." Eric replied, rolling his eyes. "Donna's friend Jackie wants a salad. Iceberg lettuce – no spinach or other vegetables mixed in – with raspberry vinaigrette."

"Well, we have some lettuce and Italian dressing." Kitty reported after looking in the refrigerator. "She'll never know the difference."

---

"So?" Eric waited for a reaction after Jackie tasted her salad.

"Ew! This is even worse than a Popsicle would have been!" Jackie wrinkled her nose and set the plate daintily on the table. "That's Romaine lettuce and Italian dressing, Eric, you moron!"

"Uh, sorry?" Eric rolled his eyes.

"Ugh! I'm going home. I'll get the housekeeper to cook something for me." Jackie stood and opened the door. "Donna! Come with me," she commanded.

"No, I think I'll stick around. Bye now!" Donna smiled and waved overenthusiastically.

Jackie let out one more disgusted sigh before leaving, the door slamming in her wake.

"Is there really a difference between all those different kinds of lettuce?" Eric wondered aloud.

"I didn't know there even were different kinds until just now," Donna shrugged.

"Yeah, I thought lettuce was just… lettuce." Hyde responded.

"Silly whores. There are _six_ common kinds of lettuce," Fez said, shaking his head at their stupidity. Everyone stared at him. "My cousins are lettuce farmers," he explained.

"Ooookay, thanks for that, Fez," Hyde nodded. "Now moving on to more important business. I think I found a pot plant growing by the water tower."

"Are you serious?!" Eric exclaimed. "Let's go."

---

"Oh my God, Hyde, you found weed!" Eric said excitedly. "We're gonna be so rich and high for the rest of our lives!"

"Correction: _I'm_ gonna be so rich and high for the rest of _my_ life," Hyde smirked.

Fez, who had been examining the plant, stood up. "Hyde, you idiot! This is not a pot plant! It is a spider flower!"

"Fez, I don't see any flower," Hyde objected.

"It is a spider flower plant!" Fez insisted. "My mother grows them in her garden. Before they bloom, boys are always coming by asking to buy them. Now I understand why."

"Oookay then…" Hyde relented.

Donna laughed.

"It's not funny! I coulda been rich," Hyde said in disappointment.

---

Hyde, Donna, and Eric sat in the basement in silence. Fez had left soon after devouring almost all of Kitty's cookies, and Hyde's sulking over the lost potential cash was bringing everyone down. Eric turned on the television.

"Hey, the Brady Bunch!" he said, pointing at the screen. "You know what I like to do? Sometimes I put it on mute and make up lines for them. Oh, hey, Donna, come here, you can be Marcia. I'll start." He put the television on mute.

"Well, Marcia, a football in the face! That's gotta hurt!" Eric mimicked.

Donna glanced quickly at him before joining in tentatively. "Ouch, my nose!"

"That's gonna be _huge_ in the morning!" Eric said.

"Huger than my boobs?" Donna responded, getting into it.

"Well, bigger than the left one!" Eric smiled. Most people thought he was crazy for thinking that was fun, but Donna seemed to be having just as good of a time. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Hyde turned off the TV.

"This is stupid," he said, folding his arms.

Eric and Donna exchanged a look. "Yeah, I know, but that's what makes it fun," Eric explained.

"I'm gonna head home," Hyde said. He left the basement, leaving Eric and Donna alone.

"So, uh, you want to go shoot some hoops?" Eric suggested.

"Nah, let's just stay here," Donna replied. "So, uh, how've you been?"

"Uh, I'm fine… how are you?" Eric asked tentatively, not wanting to spark the beginning of a long rant about Kelso. By that point, everything had mostly blown over, but there were still some moments when Donna would blow up.

"Pretty good, actually," Donna replied. "I mean, I could be better."

"What do you mean?" Eric asked.

"Well, there's this guy I sort of like, and we're kind of friends, but I don't think he knows…" Donna sighed, knowing Eric well enough that she was confident that he wouldn't realize she meant him.

Eric thought for a moment. _Could it be me? We're friends… yeah, right, keep dreaming, Forman. Who else could it be? Not Kelso… and not Fez, they just met, and she didn't seem to exactly fall in love at first sight…_ "Oh my God, Donna, you like Hyde?!" Eric exclaimed. "Yeah, you're right, he doesn't-"

Donna cut him off by leaning in and kissing him. Eric was caught by surprise, but he didn't move away.

When Donna looked away, apparently embarrassed, Eric stared at her. "Wait… you like Hyde… but you're kissing me… I'm sorry, but I'm just really confused."

Donna's complexion quickly changed to match her hair. "Moron. I don't like _Hyde._" She got up and walked towards the door.

"So… so then who _do_ you like?" Eric called after her, his voice having risen a few octaves.

Donna stared at him. _God, guys are stupid!_ "Figure it out." With those three final words, she got out of the basement as quickly as possible.

Eric sat in silence for a few moments, evaluating the events of the past few minutes. Finally, a thought dawned on him. "_Me_?"

---

Review, review, review! Oh, and in case you didn't know, Fez really IS a city in Morocco. When I found that out, I knew I'd have to work it into a 70s fanfic somehow. Hah.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for the amazing reviews! I'm so glad you all like my humor, it's hard to write and I'm never entirely sure if I'm doing it well. But your reviews give me confidence. :

Anyways, this chapter has some very important events, so be sure to review and let me know what you think!

---

"So where's Donna, man?" Hyde inquired, a week after what Eric referred to in his head as The Encounter.

"Oh, Hyde, are you sure you do not mean to ask where Jackie is?" Fez reminded him, trying to be helpful. His comment only earned him a smack from Hyde.

"Where do you come up with that crap, Fez?" Hyde retorted. "Jackie Burkhart is the antithesis of everything I stand for. She's a materialistic, bitchy little cheerleader."

"Okay, Hyde, if you do not want anyone to know, I will not tell anyone," Fez smiled knowingly.

"Oh, come on, Fez, lay off," Eric said. "Even if Hyde did like Jackie, which is totally impossible, we would _want_ him to hide it. Because if he thought that we wouldn't care, which we _would_, then he could end up dating her and we would never get rid of her!"

"Oh Eric, that reminds me, how are things with you and Donna?" Fez asked.

"Come on, man, she hasn't been here in weeks. Forman probably screwed up like he did with Jackie," Hyde smirked.

"Shut up, Hyde, Jackie doesn't like me!" Eric said.

"Oh, Eric, you should join the basketball team! Everyone knows the basketball players hang out with the cheerleaders! Did I happen to mention that _I'm_ a cheerleader? Oh, Eric, I'm tired, let me rest my pretty little head on your shoulder!" Hyde mimicked. "Forman, are you blind or just stupid?"

"According to Red, I'm just stupid," Eric shrugged.

"Ooh, this is like a soap opera, yes? Hyde likes Jackie, who likes Eric, who likes Donna, who is friends with Jackie!" Fez said excitedly. But his eager smile was soon wiped off his face when he made another connection. "But there is no one for Fez."

"I don't like her!" Hyde and Eric said at the same time. "_She_ kissed _me_, not the other way around!" Eric added defensively.

All eyes turned to Eric. Any thought of Jackie was forgotten. "Oh, uh, did I just say that out loud?" Eric said, his voice suddenly high-pitched.

Hyde looked amused. "Yeah, you did. So Donna kissed you, man?"

Eric sighed. The secret was out. _But they already knew I liked her somehow… How did they know that? Oh well, that's beside the point._ "Yeah."

"Ooh, when?" Fez asked eagerly. If he wasn't getting any, at least it was comforting to know that his friend was.

"Like a week ago, maybe?" Eric shrugged.

"Is _that_ why she isn't around anymore?" Hyde asked.

"She is probably embarrassed," Fez nodded.

"Thanks, Fez," Eric rolled his eyes.

"Well, Donna is hot! She could have anyone, especially Fez, but instead she kissed you!" Fez shook his head. "I would be embarrassed too."

"What's wrong with me?" Eric asked.

"Oh, Eric, you're-" Fez began.

"Okay, let's concentrate on the important thing here: Forman has a chance with a girl. And not just any girl… I mean, like Fez said, Donna _is_ hot," Hyde said, nodding in approval. For some reason, the fact that it was so obvious that Forman and Donna would get together soon relieved Hyde. _Because you know that he won't stand in your way with someone else,_ a voice in the back of Hyde's head said. He tried to shake the thought from his mind. "So Forman, are you going to ask her out?"

"I don't know… I mean, I'm still not sure if she likes me…" Eric said nervously.

Hyde smacked Eric upside the head. "Forman! She _kissed_ you! How much more obvious does she have to be?!"

"Look, I just-" Eric began.

"Forman, if you don't ask her out, she's going to end up asking Fez and me what your problem is. And I think we'll just tell her that you like Fez," Hyde threatened.

"What?!" Fez jumped. "Why can't he be in love with Kelso instead?" he pouted.

"True. We'll tell her you like _Kelso_!" Hyde smirked.

"What?! No way, you guys," Eric said.

"Then ask her out, you idiot!" Fez ordered.

"No!" Eric said.

"Why, Forman? You like Kelso?" Hyde asked.

"_No,_ you guys, I like Donna!" Eric blurted.

"The truth comes out," Hyde smirked.

"It is about time!" Fez said.

"Well, it's not like you guys didn't know already anyways," Eric rolled his eyes.

"Then ask her out!" Hyde and Fez said simultaneously.

"Okay, _fine_!" Eric relented. "I'll ask her out tomorrow."

"No, Forman, it's now or never," Hyde said.

"Look, I can't just go over there and be like, 'Hey, Donna, be my girlfriend! How 'bout it?' I have to think about everything first!" Eric countered.

"Okay, fine. But if you don't do it tomorrow, we're telling her you like Kelso," Hyde warned.

Eric rolled his eyes.

---

"So, Donna, I'm thinking I might ask Eric out," Jackie said as she painted her toenail bright pink.

Donna, who had been writing in her journal, looked up in surprise. "_What_?"

"Well, I think he's really cute. And you know, I've _tried_ to get my point across subtly, but he's too stupid to take a hint," Jackie explained.

_Amen to that_, Donna thought to herself.

"So I think the only way to let him know is going to be to ask him out," Jackie shrugged. Donna stared at her, dumbfounded. "I know, I know, Jackie Burkhart asking a boy out? I know, it's _so_ weird! But I think it's worth it. Eric really seems great, and not a jerk like Michael," Jackie explained, interpreting Donna's odd look the wrong way.

"Yeah, he does, doesn't he?" Donna agreed.

"So do you think he would say yes?" Jackie asked. Donna opened her mouth to reply, but Jackie cut her off with a laugh. "That was a stupid question. Of course he'll say yes. I mean, I _am_ Jackie Burkhart, after all."

"True," Donna agreed, trying to conceal her disappointment. If Jackie got to Eric… _Jackie is a tiny, perky little cheerleader who has a ton of money and just about everything she or anyone else could ever want. I, on the other hand… Well, I'm a giant girl who's not even that popular, and I don't have all that much money, either. Why would Eric ever pick me over someone like Jackie?_ Donna thought sadly.

"So you think I should ask him out? Oh, Donna, you may dress like a lumberjack, but you're a great friend!" Jackie said excitedly, giving Donna a hug. "Now what should I wear?" Jackie asked. "Oh, why am I asking _you_? You wouldn't know! Okay, I'm going to pick an outfit, and then we need to drive to Eric's house so I can talk to him before I change my mind!"

"Great," Donna said flatly.

---

The basketball bounced off the rim and towards Hyde, almost hitting the Vista Cruiser. "R!" Eric called.

"Fez, you have H-O-R," Hyde said.

"That makes me a whore!" Fez grinned. Hyde and Eric laughed.

"I like playing horse," Eric commented.

"Yeah, Forman, how are you this good at it? No offense or anything, but I don't exactly look at you and think 'hey, he must be really good at basketball'," Hyde said.

"Donna." Eric said simply.

"Ooh, your loooover!" Fez grinned.

"Yeah, thanks for that, Fez. Anyways, she's been helping me with my form for a while. I've gotten a lot better," Eric shrugged.

Hyde smirked, thinking about all of the dirty, non-basketball-related ways he could interpret that statement.

"Ooh, who has the nice car?" Fez asked, pointing at a black car that was approaching the Formans' house.

"I dunno… it looks familiar somehow, though," Eric shrugged. When a tiny brunette stepped out of it, though, he suddenly remembered. Eric groaned.

"What, Forman?" Hyde asked.

Eric pointed down the driveway. "Jackie's here." However, when he spotted the redhead who accompanied her, he felt a sense of relief. "Oh, she's probably just dropping Donna off."

"Forman, this is your chance, okay? Just ask her to go to a movie with you or something!" Hyde ordered. He had a sick feeling about what could happen otherwise.

"Hi, Eric, can I ask you something?" Jackie said perkily. She 'just happened' to be wearing her cheerleading uniform with its tight-fitting sweater and short pleated skirt.

"Uh, sure, but could you hold on a sec? I need to talk to Donna," Eric said. He pulled Donna aside. "So, uh, I don't know if you'd want to, but… well, I was thinking, and, uh…"

"Get to the point, Eric," Donna said, in a bad mood from thoughts of the impending horror that was Jackie and Eric as a couple.

"Do you want to go to a movie sometime?" Eric blurted.

All worry was cleared from Donna's mind. "Sure!" she said happily.

"Great!" Eric said, relieved. "I should probably go see what Jackie wanted." He rolled his eyes.

"Oh, uh…" Donna began.

"What?" Eric asked.

"Uh, nothing," she said.

When they returned to the group, their eyes shining with happiness, Hyde could tell that Forman had done his deed.

"So, uh, Jackie, what did you want?" Eric inquired.

"Well, I was wondering if maybe you'd take me to dinner tonight!" Jackie suggested.

Eric glanced at Donna for help. Donna was suddenly struck with guilt. She had known that this was going to happen, but she'd accepted Eric's offer anyways. _Well, it's not like I asked him out. He asked me out, and I said yes. It's not a crime to go on a date with the guy you like,_ she thought.

"Uh… well, Jackie… Donna and I were going to go to a movie tonight," Eric said gently.

Jackie gasped and glared evilly at Donna. "You _slut_!"

"Girl fight!" Fez shouted. Hyde smirked, but everyone else ignored Fez.

"What? Is it a _crime_ to go on a date with the guy I like?" Donna demanded defensively.

"Why didn't you _tell_ me you were going on a date with him?!" Jackie countered.

"Because I didn't _know_ until he asked me out just now!" Donna retorted.

"Well, maybe you should have said _no_ since you knew I was going to ask him out five seconds later!" Jackie pointed out.

"Jackie, look, this is my fault, I guess I just had bad timing…" Eric said apologetically.

"Damn right you did!" Jackie agreed angrily. "How _dare_ you embarrass me like that!"

"Eric, come on, we need to decide what movie we're going to tonight!" Donna said, looking straight at Jackie.

"Uh, okay…" Eric said, following Donna into the basement.

"I should also be going. My host parents wanted me home for dinner tonight," Fez said, making up an excuse to get him out of this extremely uncomfortable situation. "Good day."

"Fez, it's only 2:30!" Hyde objected, not wanting to be left alone in the driveway with the now-sobbing mess that was Jackie Burkhart.

"I said good day!" Fez said, quickly leaving.

"Oh, Hyde!" Jackie lurched towards Hyde, throwing her tiny arms around him.

"Whoa, Jackie, man, what are you doing?" Hyde asked, taken by surprise. Jackie just continued bawling. "Okay, okay, okay… Yeah, yeah, it's okay…" Hyde attempted to console her, without a clue as to what he should be saying.

"How could they _do_ that to me!" Jackie sobbed.

"I don't know, man, but I think Forman's liked Donna for a little while," Hyde informed her.

"Well, why would he want her when he could have _me_?" Jackie cried.

"I don't know, man," Hyde said honestly. "I really don't."

---

So how did you like it? Reviews are to me what candy is to Fez. ;


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter! Sorry it took so long for me to write this one, it was the last days of school and finals this week, so I didn't have a ton of free time to write.

---

"So, I feel kind of bad for ditching Jackie," Eric said as he and Donna stood in line to buy popcorn at the movie theater.

"Eric, don't feel bad, how could you have known?" Donna said, annoyed at Jackie. _This is supposed to be my night. How does she manage to ruin things with her stupid drama queen attitude when she's not even here?!_

"You're right…" Eric shrugged. Then he remembered something. "_You_ knew."

"…Yeah?" Donna said, waiting for his point.

"So you just backstabbed your friend so you could be with me?" he raised his eyebrows.

"If you want to look at it that way…" Donna shrugged.

"Cool," Eric smiled. _So we go from her ditching me to her ditching a friend to be with me. A friend who happened to want to be here with me right now. Eric Forman, you are a ladies' man._

"So, what are we seeing?" Donna asked, just then realizing that she and Eric had never discussed this crucial detail.

"Oh, uh… is _Rocky_ okay?" Eric asked.

"Sure," Donna shrugged. _Not that watching a guy sweat and hit people is really the way I wanted to spend our first date,_ she added silently.

"Great," Eric nodded. _What's that even about? Whatever. If I get my way, we won't be watching the movie anyways. Oh, Forman scores!_

---

"So where's Forman?" Kelso asked.

"Movies-" Hyde began.

"With _Donna_," Jackie finished, her tone resembling that of someone who was talking about cleaning vomit off of their shoes.

"What's her problem?" Kelso asked, studying a glowering Jackie.

"Forman asked Donna to the movies right before Jackie was gonna ask him," Hyde shrugged.

"Jackie was gonna ask _Donna_ to the movies?" Kelso guffawed.

"No, moron, she was gonna ask _Forman_ to the movies," Hyde said, hitting Kelso.

"Oww! What was that for, Hyde?!" Kelso demanded, holding his injured arm.

"Being a moron!" Hyde responded.

"Ohh, right. I get that a lot," Kelso shrugged. "So, uh, Jackie… if you're feelin' lonely, we could always, yanno, do it."

Jackie glared at him. "Michael, shut it, okay?"

Hyde hit Kelso on the arm in the same place he had a couple of minutes before. "Oww, Hyde! What the hell?" Kelso pouted.

"Leave her alone, man," Hyde said with a warning look, as if to say _Or there's more where that came from._

"You're no fun, Hyde," Kelso scowled. He suddenly jumped up, his chair clattering over.

"Kelso, man, are you having a seizure or something?" Hyde stared at him.

"No! I just remembered Forman has Popsicles in the freezer!" Kelso said excitedly, the abuse of the past few moments completely forgotten.

Jackie turned her mismatched eyes on Hyde, giving him a look that clearly said _Can you believe this guy?_

Hyde responded by shrugging and shaking his head, then turning and sticking his foot in front of Kelso, who promptly tripped over it and fell on his face. "Ow, my eye!" he yelped. "Dammit, Hyde!"

Hyde burst out laughing. Even Jackie, who had been staring – or rather, glaring – into space the whole time she had been in the basement, had to grin.

"Fine! I'll take the hint. I'm outta here," Kelso said indignantly. He got to his feet and turned towards the door. He was halfway across the room before he suddenly turned around and stalked back over to the Deep Freeze. He pulled out a red Popsicle, and with one final glare at Hyde, he turned and left.

"He is such an idiot!" Jackie burst out as soon as Kelso was gone.

"Yeah, I know. And to think just a few days ago you were so upset that he stood you up for Donna," Hyde smirked.

"Shut up, Steven. If you don't want to get seriously hurt, you probably shouldn't mention any guys who have rejected me for Donna," Jackie warned. "And I don't usually threaten physical pain. So you _know_ I'm serious."

Hyde snickered. "Yeah, Jackie, you weigh what, 95 pounds? Hate to burst your bubble, but I'm not all that afraid of you beating me up."

"Oh, you're one of those?" Jackie looked him up and down. "Underestimating me?"

"Jackie, come on…" Hyde began in his usual sarcastic manner. Jackie interrupted by jumping up and kneeing him in the groin in one swift movement. "JACKIE! WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"I told you," Jackie said coolly, sitting back on the couch.

"That," Hyde groaned, "is not fair."

"I didn't know we'd agreed on a set of rules," Jackie shrugged.

"Jackie, it's an _unwritten _rule. Anything to the balls is…" Hyde trailed off. _That was hot,_ was all that he could comprehend. He and Jackie locked eyes; it was one of those rare days when Hyde didn't have his signature aviators on.

_No way, Jackie,_ Jackie told herself. _This is not your type. He's dirty, and poor, and weird. No way. But he's just got that irresistible ruggedness to him… Dammit!_

_Oh, come on, she's freakin' whiny and bitchy and everything you stand against!_ Hyde reminded himself. _She's not even that hot! Okay, no, that was a lie. Dammit!_

The looks that were passing between the two intensified until…

"Hey, guys, have you seen my jacket?" Kelso burst through the door.

"No, Kelso, now didn't you have to be somewhere or-" Hyde began, irritated that his chance at getting somewhere with this stuck-up rich girl had been interrupted.

"Hi, Michael! How are you?" Jackie said as pleasantly as possible, trying to start a conversation so he would sit down. With Kelso in the room, she wouldn't have to worry about being tempted by Hyde. _Not that I ever would be_, she tried – and failed – to convince herself.

"Uhh, I'm fine…" Kelso said, confused as to why Jackie was so perky all of a sudden.

"Kelso," Hyde glared at him.

"Hyde, she's fine now, okay? Don't worry, I'm not going to mention how Eric likes Donna better than her or anything, it's _fine_," Kelso said defensively.

"Thanks, Michael," Jackie rolled her eyes.

"What?! I said I wouldn't!" Kelso said.

"Yeah, but in saying you _wouldn't_, you actually _did_," Hyde pointed out. "Moron."

"Oh my god, what time is it?" Kelso asked spastically.

"Four thirty?" Hyde replied.

"Dammit!" Kelso ran from the basement.

"There's something wrong with him," Hyde shook his curly head.

Jackie jumped on him. All Hyde could remember afterwards from the less-than-expected make-out session was thinking to himself, _Is the girl trying to eat me alive or something?_

"Damn!" Jackie swore a few minutes later.

"Uh, what?" Hyde asked.

"You!" Jackie shouted.

"What did _I_ do?!" Hyde demanded.

"I don't know!" Jackie said, frustrated. "I'm not supposed to want guys like you!"

"What's wrong with me?" Hyde asked defensively.

"Are you rich?" Jackie asked.

"Uh, Jackie, my mom is 'Gross Edna.' What's that tell you?" Hyde said sarcastically.

"My point exactly!" Jackie exclaimed.

"So, what, just because a guy doesn't have money shooting out his ass, he's not good enough for you?" Hyde snorted.

"Uh, _yeah_," Jackie rolled her eyes. "I am _Jackie Burkhart_! JACKIE BURKHART!"

"Well, Jackie Burkhart, good luck with that," Hyde slipped back into his usual Zen state and put his sunglasses back on.

"So is that all you have to say?" Jackie demanded.

"You want to talk to _me_?" Hyde said, feigning surprise. "But I'm not a materialistic bastard! Why would you ever want to be within 100 yards of _me_?"

"Oh, shut up, Steven!" Jackie sat back on the couch, folded her arms, and pouted. Every few moments, Hyde would catch her glancing over at him.

Finally, he allowed the glances to get to him. "_What_, Jackie?" he relented.

"Nothing," she pouted.

"Okay," Hyde shrugged. _Who cares about Little Miss Burkhart and her emotional instability._

"I should go," Jackie finally said, irritated that he wasn't making an effort to find out what was wrong. _Well, what did you expect, Jackie?_ she asked herself. _He's poor. He doesn't understand politeness._

"Yep, you probably should," Hyde said coolly.

Jackie stomped her foot. "What is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with _me_?" Hyde said incredulously. "What's wrong with _you_? You jump all over me, and then you yell at me because of it."

"Well… well, you shouldn't have let me!" Jackie insisted.

"Hell, Jackie, I didn't say I didn't like it!" Hyde said, accidentally saying more than he'd wanted to.

Jackie gave a small smile. "So you like me?"

"Jackie, just because I make out with someone doesn't mean I like them. I'm just a perverted bastard like Fez and every other guy we know," Hyde pointed out.

"So you _don't_ like me?" Jackie pouted.

"I didn't say that either," Hyde said.

"So you like me!" Jackie grinned, throwing her arms around him.

"Jackie, get off of me!" Hyde ordered, not making any effort to push her away. To his dismay, she obeyed.

"Steven… I'm sorry for yelling at you," Jackie offered a rare genuine apology.

"Okay," Hyde nodded in acceptance.

"Do you… do you have anything you'd like to apologize to _me_ for?" Jackie asked.

Hyde thought for a moment. "Nope."

"Ugh!" Jackie stomped her foot.

"Jackie, think, okay? Do I really have anything to apologize for?" he pointed out.

Jackie reevaluated the whole ordeal. _No, he really doesn't,_ the more rational part of her brain told her. _But you can't be wrong, duh!_ the vain part of her said. "Ugh, no," she relented; the rational part of her winning for what must have been the first time in years.

Hyde smirked, recognizing the fact that he had won.

"Don't smirk at me, Steven!" Jackie warned. "I _will_ hurt you, you know I will!"

"Okay, okay!" Hyde backed off, still smirking.

"Stop making that face!" Jackie stomped her foot again. She leapt towards him.

"Wow, who was stupid enough to leave you two alone together?" Eric snorted.

"What? It's not like we were going to _do_ anything!" Jackie said quickly.

Eric stared at her. "Uh, I know, I just meant that I'm surprised you're both still breathing."

Neither Jackie nor Hyde could comprehend anything at that moment other than the fact that they had come very close to getting caught by their friends.

"He thought you two would have killed each other by now, morons!" Donna spelled it out for them.

"Oh, yeah, well trust me, it hasn't been easy," Hyde said in his usual sarcastic manner.

Eric breathed easier. He had been wondering if something _had_ happened between Jackie and Hyde; they were both acting a little odd. _But Hyde seems perfectly normal, and Jackie? Jackie's always acting weird,_ Eric rationalized.

"Donna, can I come to your house?" Jackie asked.

"Uh, why don't we just hang out here?" Donna shrugged.

"Donna!" Jackie insisted.

"Okay, okay!" Donna relented. "I'll see you guys later." Before following Jackie, who was impatiently waiting by the door, she gave Eric a goodbye kiss. To her surprise, Jackie didn't seem to care a bit. _Oh, god, something happened,_ Donna realized, putting two and two together.

Once the girls had left, Eric turned to Hyde. "So, how was hanging out with Jackie?" he said, sounding as if he pitied Hyde.

Hyde had to think fast, trying to figure out what the best response to this would be. _You know, honesty is the best policy,_ the rarely seen Good Hyde said. _To hell with that,_ Bad Hyde scoffed. "She was all bitchy about Donna taking you out from under her or something," Hyde snorted.

"Out from under me? Hyde, we never did it!" Eric said, bewildered.

"No, idiot, she's pissed because Donna was on a date with you when _she_ wanted to be," Hyde sneered.

"Oh… Well, that's _my_ fault, not Donna's, isn't it?" Eric pointed out.

"Jackie prefers a different type of logic not commonly known to man. In her world, it's all Donna's fault," Hyde shrugged.

"Then why was she so eager to get to Donna's house?" Eric wondered.

Hyde froze. _She's gonna tell Donna. And Donna's gonna tell Forman. And then everyone's going to know that I like some snotty cheerleading sophomore. Fuck._ "Uh… I dunno."

"You know, you two are acting really weird," Eric observed.

"What are you talking about?" Hyde said calmly, glad his glasses were firmly in place. Otherwise, his eyes would surely tell the whole story.

"Eric! Get your dumbass friends out of here, it's late!" Red yelled from the kitchen.

"Well… I should probably go," Hyde said.

---

"_What_?" Donna stared at Jackie.

"You heard me!" Jackie said.

"But… ew, _why_?" Donna wrinkled her nose.

"I don't know! It was just a really random urge. And it tasted _so_ weird!" Jackie shivered. "But I have to admit, it was kind of nice."

"Well, what did you expect?" Donna snorted. "Coke, cherry pop, and Kahlua aren't exactly the most common drink. But anything with Kahlua is nice, so… Anyways, what were you and _Hyde_ doing alone tonight?"

Jackie shivered involuntarily. Donna stared.

"What was _that_ all about?" she asked.

"I kissed Hyde!" Jackie burst out.

---

So, how did I do? Review!


	9. Chapter 9

Oh god, sorry it's been so long. I've been working on this since I posted the last chapter... but for some reason it took _forever_. Whatever. This chapter was kind of blah to me... not one of my best, or one of my favorites, in my opinion. But it's not bad, it's just kind of a transition, with some really important stuff in it. Hopefully you'll enjoy, and I'll get more than one review this time. Haha.

---

"_What_?" Donna burst out. "Ewww, Jackie, that's even worse than the coke/cherry pop/Kahlua thing!"

Jackie kicked Donna.

"Ow, Jackie, he's already rubbing off on you!" Donna yelped.

Jackie gasped in horror. "You mean… you mean I'm becoming like _him_?"

"You just kicked me! He's always hitting people when he gets pissed!" Donna pointed out.

"Yeah, well… You went out with Eric! That's gross too!" Jackie shot back.

"You _wanted_ to go out with Eric!" Donna reminded her.

"So? Now I don't because that's _gross_!" Jackie countered.

"Okay, whatever. Good. So I get Eric, and you're okay with that, then? That makes my life easier," Donna shrugged.

"_What?_" Jackie yelped, realizing she was letting Donna win. "No! I'm not okay with that!"

"I thought you said he was gross!" Donna rolled her eyes.

"Uh… Oh, yeah. Well… I changed my mind?" Jackie tried. Donna gave her a withering look. "Whatever. I'm going home. Good luck painting your nails without me here to pick the color that will match your skin tone best, lumberjack!" Jackie said snottily, stomping out the door and slamming it in her wake.

"Wow. Someone's cranky," Donna muttered before returning to her nails.

---

"So you guys haven't even done it yet?" Kelso snorted. "God, we did it a few hours after we met!"

"She was _drunk_ then, Kelso," Eric reminded him.

"So bring Donna to another party, don't let her get swept off her feet by a guy who's way more attractive than you, get her drunk, and take her upstairs!" Kelso said, as if it was obvious.

"Good plan," Eric began, "except I'm not a _jackass_!" He smacked Kelso upside the head.

"Well, come on, Forman! I mean, you _gotta_ do it with Donna. She was good, especially for a first timer!" Kelso nodded, still impressed by the event which had occurred months ago. "I mean-"

"Okay! I'll find out for myself, thanks," Eric interrupted. "Maybe on Prom night… that would be, like, romantic and stuff, right?"

"Way too corny," Hyde countered.

"You say everything about Prom is corny," Eric rolled his eyes.

"True," Hyde shrugged. "But it is."

"Eric, why did you interrupt Kelso? I wanted to hear this sexy story!" Fez complained.

Kelso suddenly jumped out of his chair.

"What now, Kelso?" Eric sighed.

"I told Pam Macy I'd meet her at the Hub! Like, five minutes ago! Eric, can you give me a ride?" Kelso begged.

"Didn't you say you'd gone to a movie with some other chick like two and a half hours ago?" Hyde said.

"Yeah, so?" Kelso shrugged.

"So you are a whore!" Fez grinned.

Hyde and Eric smirked at Kelso.

"Yeah, sure, I'll give you a ride," Eric said.

"Can you take me home on your way?" Fez requested.

"Sure," Eric shrugged. "Hyde, you coming?"

"Nah, I'll stick around. _Charlie's Angels_ is gonna be on in like ten minutes," Hyde smirked.

"Suit yourself." Eric led Kelso and Fez out of the basement.

Hyde stared at the TV, his eyes following the breasts of the girls on the screen.

"Hey, Hyde," Donna looked depressed.

"Dammit, Donna, you broke my concentration!" Hyde said.

"Uh, sorry," Donna said, not sounding as if she cared at all. "Look, Hyde… Uh, is Eric here?"

"No. He's at the Hub with Kelso. Why?" Hyde inquired.

"Okay, don't tell anyone this, but…" Donna paused. "I think I'm pregnant."

"So you and Forman _did_ do it! Why didn't he just _tell _us?" Hyde snorted.

"What? No, we haven't," Donna said, sounding sickened.

"What the hell are you talking about, Donna, if it wasn't Eric…" Hyde trailed off as he pieced the information together. He could hear Kelso's voice: _God, we did it a few hours after we met! She was good, especially for a first-timer._ "Oh my God, Kelso got you pregnant? That's hilarious!"

"Thanks a lot, Hyde!" Donna said angrily, punching him and stomping out.

"God, Donna, what the hell?!" Hyde yelled after her. When she was gone, he smirked. "Kelso and Donna. That's hilarious," he snickered to himself. Then he turned his attention back to the TV. "Oh, cool. Boobs."

---

"Eric, I need to talk to you!" Donna said urgently. "Ew, who's that?" she asked, repulsed at the sight of the girl Kelso was furiously making out with.

"Pam Macy? Or did she leave… maybe that's Pat from our English class. Hard to keep track," Eric shrugged.

"I really need to talk to you," Donna said, not even cracking a smile at Eric's burn.

"Okay…" Eric looked nervous. "Let's get in my car."

Once safely inside the Vista Cruiser, Donna took a deep breath. "I'm pregnant."

Eric looked stunned. "W-what? How? Th-that's impossible!"

Donna's face twisted into a revolted expression.

"Oh my God. Oh my God." Eric realized what had happened. "It… it's _Kelso's_?" He looked just as appalled as Donna.

"I know!" she cried. "It's disgusting! I don't even _like_ him! I didn't even know what was going on!"

Eric looked furious with Kelso right then. "It's not your fault. At all. Look, we'll get through this. I mean, I bet you could even, like, get him charged with rape or something."

"I don't want to do that!" Donna looked horrified.

"What _do_ you want to do?" Eric asked gently.

"I don't know!" Donna said, frustrated. "How do you expect me to know?"

"I don't, I was just…" Eric backed off. "Hey, I know how we can calm you down a little."

---

Ten minutes later, Eric, Donna, and Hyde were sitting in a circle around the coffee table in the basement.

"Man, can you just let Donna and me talk, _alone_?" Eric pleaded.

"Forman, man, it's my stash. If you're gonna use it, the least you could do is let me use it too," Hyde pointed out.

"Okay, man, but what you hear can't leave this circle," Eric stated.

"Like I'd remember anyways," Hyde snorted.

"True," Eric shrugged. He turned to Donna. "So Donna, how are you feeling?"

"My hands… they're _huge_! I have the _biggest_ hands in the world!" Donna giggled.

"Okay, then everything's good," Eric looked pleased with himself for temporarily solving their problems.

"So, Donna, man. Are you and Forman done?" Hyde inquired.

"Huh? Why?" Donna asked.

"Well, you're carrying another man's child, man!" Hyde smirked.

"Hyde knows?" Eric asked, wondering why he wasn't madder, because it was obvious that Hyde had found out first.

"Yeah, you weren't here so I told him," Donna shrugged.

"Oh," Eric said, still not understanding why he was cool with that. Oh well. Like Hyde had said, it wasn't like he would remember any of this later.

"So what are you gonna do?" Hyde asked lazily.

"I dunno," Donna shrugged, as leisurely as Hyde.

"Man, why are we talking about this in the circle anyways?" Hyde inquired. "It's too serious, man."

"I dunno," Eric responded. "So that's what you call this? The circle?"

"Well, we're sitting in a circle, aren't we?" Hyde pointed out.

"Sorta. Yeah," Eric nodded.

---

"Eric, you're hopeless," Donna smiled, half playfully and half seriously, as yet another one of Eric's shots bounced off the rim of the basketball hoop.

Eric hoisted himself onto the hood of the Vista Cruiser. "I know," he shrugged, watching Donna successfully sink yet another shot before she joined Eric on the car.

"So," Eric said intelligently, not knowing what to say.

"Are you okay, you know, that I told Hyde before you?" Donna asked.

"Huh?" Eric asked, not remembering clearly what had happened in the circle. "Oh. Yeah, I dunno. I'm fine. I mean, that's not really a big problem compared with everything else, you know?"

"Uh, trust me, I know," Donna said, wondering how she was possibly able to remain so calm.

Eric sat silently for a few minutes. This was a bit of an unusual situation for him. Having a girlfriend? That was new enough. But having a girlfriend who was pregnant by one of his friends? _That_ was more than he'd bargained for.

"Look, Eric, if you think this is too complicated and you don't want to… you know, go out again… I'll understand," Donna said suddenly, as though she was reading his mind.

"What? I mean, no! I mean, if you want to, but…" Eric spit out a tangled mess of words.

"No, I mean, I don't want to, but like… I don't know. It's all so awkward and weird, I didn't think you'd want to deal with everything," Donna sighed.

"Well, if I left you now, that would make me as much of a jackass as Kelso," Eric scoffed, shuddering at the thought.

"I don't know, I think he's got a pretty strong hold on the Biggest Jackass record," Donna countered. "I mean, it's _his_ fault we – I mean, _I'm_ in trouble in the first place!"

"Speaking of being in trouble… did you tell your dad yet?" Eric asked.

Donna stiffened at the thought. "No way."

"How are you going to tell him? And when? You have to tell him sometime," Eric reminded her.

"I could… um… I don't know!" Donna burst, suddenly exasperated. Eric was silent. Even he wasn't stupid enough to press the issue. Finally, Donna continued. "I could tell my mom, I guess. Sometime. The same thing happened to her. Except she knew what was going on."

Eric nodded. "Yeah. She might understand."

"Well, she better! I mean, she _chose_ to do it in the back of my dad's car, and she ended up with a kid. So if some guy totally took advantage of me and I'm pregnant, _she_ can't be mad… and neither can my dad! They were both stupid, and this isn't _my_ fault at all!" Donna ranted, blowing off steam.

"Well hello there," Kelso appeared in the driveway and sidled up next to Donna.

"Kelso. Not a good time," Eric warned.

"Eric, shut up, I need to make out with _one_ more girl today and I'll break my own record!" Kelso whispered loudly.

Eric glanced at Donna, who was shooting a deathly glare at Kelso, who seemed to be completely oblivious. "Kelso, I think my sister's up in her room, try _her_," Eric suggested, immediately wondering how insane he must be to have just instructed Kelso to make out with Laurie.

"Well, Eric, your sister _is_ kinda hot…" Kelso said, considering it. Then, apparently having made up his mind, he swooped down on Donna.

"Kelso! What the hell!" Eric yelled.

The look on Donna's face was one of rage that petrified Eric. On the other hand, Kelso was completely unaware of her anger. "Yes! Another record broken," he cheered. However, his celebration was cut short by Donna slapping him and running down the driveway and back to her house. "Dammit, Donna! God, Eric, your girlfriend has, like, _man_fists!"

However, instead of sympathy, the look on Eric's face was also one of disgust and anger. "Kelso, you just said she's my girlfriend, right?" Eric said evenly. Kelso nodded eagerly in response. "Then _why_ were you just making out with her?!" Eric yelled.

"I had to break my record!" Kelso explained. "It's not a big deal."

"It _is_ a big deal!" Eric shot back.

"What's your problem?!" Kelso asked. "Oh, I know what your problem is," he said knowingly.

"What?" Eric asked, as calmly as possible.

"I'm too good looking!" Kelso said, as if it were obvious.

"Oh, grow up," Eric said disgustedly before heading towards Donna's house.


	10. Chapter 10

Well, thanks for the reviews. Where is everyone? I only got two. And these reviews are the inspiration I have to write... but I'd like to know I have more than two readers. Haha. Oh well, here's the next chapter. Hopefully you'll enjoy.

Oh, and I realize that I had Donna in the Circle even though she's allegedly pregnant. Let's just call that yet another classic dumbass Eric moment. :

---

"God, Donna's being a bitch today!" Kelso said as he entered the basement.

Hyde smirked. _So he doesn't know_, he thought. "Yeah, man, I know. What's up with her?"

"I don't know! I mean, I even made out with her to make her feel better," Kelso lied, "but she just slapped me!"

Hyde snickered. "What?!" Kelso demanded.

Hyde rearranged his face into one of ignorant innocence. "Gee, Kelso, why do you think she slapped you?"

"I don't know! The other thirteen girls I made out with today didn't mind," Kelso shrugged.

Hyde opened his mouth to make one of his signature sarcastic comments, but Jackie's entrance into the basement interrupted him. "Is Donna here?" Jackie demanded.

"Ohhh, you _don't_ want to talk to Donna," Kelso warned. "She's in a _bad_ mood."

"Whatever," Jackie rolled her eyes and sat on the couch at the end furthest from Kelso. It was only a coincidence that this particular spot put her as close to Hyde as possible. Only a coincidence. "Michael, change the channel."

"What? But… but… Charlie's Angels!" Kelso sputtered, pointing at the TV.

"Michael!" Jackie said authoritatively.

"Fine," Kelso pouted, walking to the TV. "What channel?"

"Kelso, man, just leave it," Hyde said.

"Steven!" Jackie pouted.

"Kelso, leave-" Hyde began, but then he made the mistake of turning to look at Jackie, who had spent a great amount of her life perfecting this particular pout. It was designed specifically to get exactly what she wanted, whenever she wanted. Hyde stared at her, fighting with himself. _You want a chance with this girl? You're gonna have to give her what she wants,_ one side of him pointed out. _Yeah, but you're not the type to just wimp out and give in… or are you? Wimp,_ the other side of him argued. "Oh, screw it, change the freakin' channel," Hyde relented, irritated that he'd allowed the hornier side of him to win.

Jackie, on the other hand, looked quite proud of herself. "I think Chico and the Man is on," Jackie suggested – or perhaps commanded would be a better word.

"But… that'll be a re-run," Kelso complained.

"So?" Jackie raised an eyebrow and gave Kelso a withering look.

"You know what? I'm out of here," Kelso decided, stomping out of the basement without changing the channel.

"Steven, change the channel," Jackie ordered, pulling a nail file out of her purse and perfecting her manicure.

"What? No," Hyde shook his head.

"Steven!" Jackie said again, more forcefully.

"Change it yourself," Hyde shrugged.

"STEVEN!" Jackie slapped her nail file on the table.

"_No_, Jackie," Hyde said, smirking inwardly from the rise he was so easily getting out of her.

"Steven," Jackie said, fixing him with another pout.

"Jackie, come on, just change it yourself," Hyde said, but with much less conviction. _Shit,_ Hyde thought, as she continued giving him that look. "Forman says his sister's the devil, but I'm pretty sure he's wrong, because that's got to be you," Hyde glared at Jackie as he got up from his chair and changed the channel for her.

"Thank you, Steven," Jackie said sweetly.

Hyde replied with a grunt.

"So, Steven. How are you?" Jackie asked, trying to make conversation.

"Fine," Hyde answered.

"You're supposed to ask me about myself now," Jackie reminded him.

"I know," Hyde shrugged. "I'm also _supposed_ to do homework, but we all know how often _that_ happens."

"You're impossible," Jackie rolled her eyes and turned back towards the TV.

"I pride myself on that," Hyde muttered. Jackie just rolled her eyes again in response.

After a few moments of silence, broken only by the sounds coming from the television, Jackie began to sigh.

After a few pathetic noises, Hyde rolled his eyes and gave in. "Jackie, if I ask you what's wrong, will you stop doing that?"

Jackie sighed one last time for good measure. "It's just… well, we had… we had a nice time the other day," she said.

"Yeah, and?" he prompted when she didn't continue.

"Well, now you're being rude to me again! And it's confusing!" Jackie complained.

"Jackie, perfect manners aren't a big part of who I am," Hyde snorted.

"Ugh," Jackie rolled her eyes. "I'm wasting my time, aren't I, Steven? Ugh, I was so stupid. Can you believe that I actually thought there was a tiny possibility you might actually care about me? Whatever, you're just a horny manwhore like Michael."

"What the hell, Jackie?" Hyde demanded, angry at being compared to Kelso.

"Well, you are! You _obviously_ don't care about me, but you had _no_ problem making out with me," Jackie said scathingly.

"Who says I don't… Oh, screw it," Hyde said, realizing that he'd almost opened a discussion about his feelings. _I'm not a freakin' chick. What the hell was that about?_ he wondered.

Unfortunately, Jackie caught on. That was obvious from the pleasantly surprised grin that was spreading across her face. "Who says you don't what, Steven?"

"Nothing," Hyde said grumpily.

"You _do_ care about me!" Jackie's grin broadened. "Steven, you're so sweet!"

"Jackie, I can think of a lot of words to describe me, but sweet is not one of them," Hyde objected.

"No, Steven, that's your problem, you try to pretend that you're some grouchy burnout who has no feelings. But you _do_ have feelings, Steven, I can tell!" Jackie said, feeling inspirational, like one of those self-help book writers or something.

"Jackie…" Hyde leaned towards Jackie and spoke slowly and meaningfully, "you're full of crap."

Jackie turned away and picked her nail file up off the table, muttering something that sounded quite like, "Hopeless!"

Usually an exchange like this would be the highlight of Hyde's day. It was conversations like these that made his life interesting. But for the first time, for some reason, it didn't leave him with a sense of satisfaction.

---

"Donna, just the girl I wanted to see!" Kitty Forman ambushed Donna in the driveway.

"Uh, hi, Mrs. Forman," Donna said uncertainly. _What did she hear? Did Eric tell her? God, I'm going to kill him,_ she thought viciously.

"Well, Eric told me about your little predicament," Kitty said conversationally, following up with her signature laugh.

_Oh my God. Oh my God. She'll tell everyone in Point Place!_ Donna worried.

"Oh, it's not _that_ bad!" Kitty said, noticing the sickened look on Donna's face. "That Michael Kelso… I mean, Eric's my son, and I love him, but Michael… oh, he could be a model!"

"Mrs. Forman, I'm with Eric! I don't care if Kelso could be a model, I didn't want this _at all_!" Donna assured her, wondering how Kitty could possibly be so calm about the situation. It was the 70s, after all, but it had always seemed to Donna that the Formans were stuck about twenty years in the past.

"Oh, honey, I know. But he only, er, made a move on you once. It isn't as though you have some commitment!" Kitty laughed again.

"What? Mrs. Forman, how is this not a commitment?!" Donna demanded.

Kitty looked taken aback. "Donna, I once caught Red kissing another girl in the middle of the movie theater, and he didn't marry _her_, now did he? Of course not! He married me, not that horse-faced Lynn Taylor… Not to say you and Eric will ever get married," Kitty laughed, "but just because Michael kissed you _one_ time doesn't mean you have to grow old together!"

"Of… of course not, Mrs. Forman," Donna replied, seeing the misunderstanding. "Well… bye." She hurried off.

---

"Oh my God, I was just talking to your mom. I thought she, you know, _knew_," Donna burst out as soon as she found Eric, who was reorganizing his G.I. Joe dolls – or, as he liked to call them, action figures.

"Knew what?" Eric asked curiously.

"You know what!" Donna said, exasperated with Eric's less-than-impeccable memory.

Eric was silent for a moment, apparently thinking hard. Then it dawned on him. "Oh, _that_. How would she know that?"

"Oh, I don't know, _you_ told her?" Donna suggested sarcastically.

"I didn't tell her!" Eric reassured her. "Wait… she _doesn't_ know, right?"

"Right. Well, that's why I'm here. To make sure," Donna reminded him.

"Well, I didn't tell her," Eric said honestly.

"Okay, good," Donna nodded.

"Hey, you wanna go to another movie, or dinner or something tonight?" Eric asked.

"Sure, that sounds great. How about dinner?" Donna responded.

"Uhh, well, Donna… I don't have much money… could you pay for, you know… Well, you know how you're eating for two? I'm only dating _you_, so I only have to pay for you, right?" Eric said smoothly.

"God, sometimes you're as bad as Kelso!" Donna said, and stormed off.

"Donna, wait!" Eric called after her. "God, why do I always screw these things up?" he muttered.

---

"Steven…" Jackie pouted.

"What now?" Hyde grunted, not looking up from his magazine.

"I'm bored. I've seen this episode before," Jackie complained.

"Yeah, and…" Hyde said carelessly.

Jackie looked at him as if he were blind.

_Ohhh,_ he thought, having a revelation. He stood from his usual chair and moved over next to Jackie, who was still sitting on the couch.

"You will never believe who I saw at the drugstore buying a pregnancy test!" Fez said as he walked in, adopting the joyful manner he always used when he knew a secret. Then his eyes fell on Jackie and Hyde. "What the hell?! I am sure I just saw tongue! But I thought you two hated each other!"

"We do," Hyde said, moving back to his chair. Jackie shot him a betrayed glare before replying. "Yeah, we do. He's a scruffy burnout."

"Yeah, well you're a spoiled little bitch," Hyde shot back.

"Well, I will leave. I do not want to interrupt your looovers' quarrel," Fez said, walking back outside, grinning even more widely than he had been when he'd walked in. Now he had _two_ secrets.

"Oh God, Steven," Jackie buried her face in his shoulder.

"What, Jackie?" Hyde snapped, still irritated at having been called a burnout.

"Fez doesn't keep secrets, he's going to tell everyone!" Jackie wailed.

"And you wouldn't want to be associated with a scruffy burnout like me," Hyde said sarcastically.

"Come _on_, Steven, I was just saying that to play along!" Jackie defended herself. "But you, on the other hand… I know you meant what you said about me."

"Well, it was true!" Hyde said scathingly.

"Well, maybe it's true that you're a scruffy burnout!" Jackie said, equally disdainfully.

"Jackie, can I ask you something?" Hyde said after a few moments of silence.

"Whatever," Jackie said, her pride hurt from the exchange of the past few minutes.

"Why do you care so much about finding out how I feel? What, do you want to blackmail me or something?" Hyde demanded.

"How can you say that, Steven?" Jackie said, sounding hurt.

"Uh, because whenever we're alone, you end up insulting me? Jackie, you act like you care whether I care, which means you care about _me_, but if you ever want some kind of… _relationship_," Hyde spat the word relationship in the same manner that some people might say 'vomit', "you would have to meet me halfway." _Why am I talking about my feelings? I need to get away from this girl. This always happens when I'm around her,_ Hyde thought angrily.

"Steven, I don't insult you!" Jackie denied. "Okay, maybe I do. And I'm _sorry_! But… that's just how I am."

Hyde stared into space, refusing to continue a discussion about a potential relationship with Jackie. _Jackie Burkhart? What is wrong with you, man? _he asked himself.

"Steven, I said I was sorry," Jackie reminded him.

"I can hear, Jackie," he said, sounding irritated.

"Well… do you _accept_ my apology?" Jackie prompted.

"Jackie, just shut up," Hyde said. Before Jackie could protest, he turned and pressed his lips against hers.

"You guys, I think I left a bag of candy here, have you seen…" Fez's voice trailed off as he saw Jackie and Hyde. "Again?!" He strode towards them.

"_What_, Fez," Hyde demanded.

"You have had _two_ chances, now it is my turn!" Fez insisted. "Jackie?" He leaned towards her.

"Ew!" Jackie shrieked. "You are _weird_, and I'm going home!"


	11. Chapter 11

Well, considering this is the eleventh chapter, I'm not sure how much more I'll be doing with this story. I think there'll be at least a few more chapters to come, considering I'd like to do a bit more with Jackie and Hyde's relationship. And I think that I've been neglecting Eric and Donna a bit... maybe it doesn't seem that way to the reader, but I just feel like I've worked on JH a lot more. Anyways, I'm probably 3/4 of the way done. I just thought I ought to clarify that.

---

"Kelso! There you are," Fez said, walking into the Hub and finding his friend playing pinball.

"Hey Fez," Kelso said, not looking up from his game.

"You will never guess who I saw-" Fez began.

"Hold on a minute," Kelso interrupted, "I think I'm gonna beat my high score!'

Fez looked on in silence for five more minutes. "Dammit!" Kelso exclaimed when he finally lost. "All that pinball's making me hungry. I wanna hot dog."

"As I was saying," Fez began again, "you will never guess-"

"Fez, d'you have five bucks I can borrow?" Kelso asked anxiously. "My mom didn't give me my allowance yet this week, and I'm hungry!" he whined.

By now, Fez had gotten extremely frustrated. "No, I have no money for you, you son of a bitch!" He whirled around and stomped outside.

"Fez, wait!" Kelso called. "Dammit, I need some cash!" He scoped out the room. _Brunette. Tall. Kinda hot… oh, but there's the boyfriend. Who cares, she looks like she has money… oh, no, he's buying. Crap. Uhhh… oh, jackpot!_ he thought. "Hey Pam," he said in what he thought was his most seductive voice.

"Oh. Hi, Kelso," Pam replied, sounding bored.

"Hey, get outta here, Kelsmo," a guy wearing a letterman's jacket stepped up beside Pam.

"Hey, you're that guy who breaks stuff! And then your friend gives it back!" Kelso pointed at him, recognizing the guy from his remedial math class.

"Yeah, and I'm gonna break you if you get near my girl," the guy threatened.

"You're with Pam?" Kelso asked, confused. "I always thought you and your friend were, like, you know, together!" The guy looked at him menacingly. "Uhh, maybe I'm thinking of someone else. Yeah, I'm thinking of this other guy. I went to school with him in, uh, China."

"You went to school in China?" the guy said doubtfully.

"Yeah, I was born there," Kelso lied.

"You don't look Chinese!" Pam pointed out, sounding confused.

"I _know_, but… uh, my parents were… My parents were Australian, but they got kidnapped by Chinese assassins when they were on their honeymoon in, uh, Russia," Kelso nodded.

"That's cool! Can you speak Chinese?" the guy asked, sounding friendlier.

"Oh, yeah!" Kelso nodded proudly. "Uhh, here, let me show you. Okay, here goes. Toyota karate, Hiroshima, Nagasaki Toyota."

"Dumbass, that's not Chinese!" the guy glared at Kelso. "That's, like, German or something!"

"Maybe it's, like, the kind of Chinese they speak in Germany?" Kelso suggested.

"Whatever. Come on, Pam, let's get outta here," the guy said, looking at Kelso skeptically.

"Bye, Kelso! I'll see you after school tomorrow," Pam winked.

"Wait! Pam! I need to borrow five bucks!" Kelso called after her.

"You're not _that_ good, Kelso!" Pam responded.

---

"You will never guess who I saw buying a pregnancy test at the drugstore!" Fez burst out for the third time that day.

Donna stood quickly from behind the Vista Cruiser, where she'd been retrieving a basketball. Fez didn't notice, and continued talking to Hyde and Eric. "Give up? It was _Donna_! Eric, you dog," Fez shook his head, "you really had me going! I actually believed that you and Donna had never done it!"

"Fez…" Eric began.

"And not only did you do it, you knocked her up!" Fez said. "No wonder you did not want us to know!"

"Fez, man-" Hyde started, with a smirk on his face. It was obvious to Donna that he was going to make one of his stupid sarcastic comments.

"No, he didn't!" Donna glared at Fez, who jumped when he heard her distinctive voice.

"Oh, Donna… I did not see you there…" Fez said nervously. He'd heard that Donna could punch _hard_, and that if she was pissed she could beat him up pretty easily.

"Yeah, that's pretty obvious," Donna stood her ground, crossing her arms. "Why can't you all just be mature about this?! We're all seventeen, _grow up_!" Fez cringed; he was sure she was going to hit him. But Donna surprised everyone by not smacking someone, but running out the back door of the garage.

"Wow, man. It almost looked like she was crying," Hyde sounded a bit shocked. Usually, crying people made him laugh. But Donna? That was just… weird.

"I did not see her there!" Fez repeated, afraid that Eric would be angry. _You did make his girlfriend cry, after all,_ Fez reminded himself. _Ehh. You can take him._

Eric opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head and walked away, following Donna.

"I did not see-" Fez began again.

"Yeah, Fez, I know," Hyde snapped, suddenly a bit stressed. Fez had managed to drive away Eric, Donna, and more importantly, Jackie within a one-hour stretch of time. Hyde was somewhat grateful for Fez getting rid of Jackie and her strange way of making him share his feelings, but Fez had also interrupted what had promised to turn into a very good make-out opportunity. And that just pissed Hyde off.

"So, Hyde, it looks like it's just you and me, buddy!" Fez grinned at Hyde. "Where to?"

"Actually, Fez, I think I'm just going to get out of here," Hyde responded, shoving his hands in his pockets and heading for home on foot.

"Oh, sure, ditch me! Just like everyone else!" Fez called after him indignantly, then he went into the basement to retrieve his candy, which he'd forgotten a few times already.

---

"Steven?" a familiar voice came out of a black car. The car's window rolled down, revealing just the girl Hyde had been thinking of – though he'd never admit it.

"Hey Jackie," Hyde replied, continuing to trudge towards home.

"Why are you walking?" Jackie inquired, slowing her speed to his pace, much to the irritation of the drivers behind her.

"Because I don't have a car," Hyde said matter-of-factly.

"Do you want a ride?" Jackie shouted over the chorus of car horns that had begun, demanding that she speed up.

"Whatever," Hyde shrugged as if he couldn't care less, even though he was thinking of Jackie as a godly figure for saving him from his long walk. He was already getting blisters.

"Get in," Jackie instructed. Hyde opened the passenger door and climbed into the luxurious car. _Lincoln Continental. Not bad,_ Hyde thought approvingly. "This is my dad's car," Jackie informed him, as if she knew that he was examining the car. _Hell, maybe she can read minds or something,_ Hyde thought. _Or maybe it's just that girly sixth-sense thing._

"So, where were you headed?" Jackie asked as they started cruising along.

"Home. Fez was pissing me off," Hyde responded. For some reason, he was unable to give his standard unsatisfactory one-word answers to Jackie. As much as he told himself that he wasn't obligated to tell her anything, he kept finding himself telling her about his thoughts and feelings, which were, as a rule, an off-limits subject with him.

"Hey, me too. What d'you know, we actually have something in common," Jackie joked.

"Never saw that coming," Hyde smirked, although he was serious. After a few moments of silence, it was clear that Jackie was waiting to see if he would bother initiating conversation. _Great. Now I'm going to have to jump through her stupid little hoops? I can't believe I'm actually going to do that,_ Hyde thought crossly. "So, uh… where were _you_ headed?"

"I dunno. Mall, maybe? Or back to Eric's house to see if… to see who was there," Jackie caught herself just in time. She'd been about to just tell Steven that she'd been going to seek him out. Why make it that easy for him? A bit of doubt was good for a guy, in Jackie's opinion.

"Oh," Hyde nodded, not catching the slip. "If you're going to Forman's, you could just bring me back there."

"I thought you said Fez was pissing you off?" Jackie reminded him.

"Yeah, well. I can kick his ass if I have to," Hyde shrugged. "Or I could always tell him there's three hookers waiting for him at a bar in Kenosha with a bag of candy. He'd be on a bus in two seconds."

Jackie snickered. "Yeah, well, I don't want to risk him trying to jump me again."

Hyde smirked to cover his slight disappointment. "Okay, so I guess you can just take me home. Take the next left."

Jackie stared at him in horror. "You live over _there_?"

"Jackie, I thought we had established that I'm 'poor.'" Hyde said, annoyed.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Jackie apologized. They drove in silence the rest of the way, Hyde's annoyance putting sufficient distance between them.

"Thanks for the ride," Hyde muttered when he got out.

"Wait!" Jackie called after him when he was halfway to the door. "Can I… come in?"

"Jackie, you don't want to come in," Hyde assured her.

"Oh," Jackie said softly, assuming that she was being rejected.

Hyde picked up on this. "No, I mean… Well, you can come in if you really want to. But trust me, it's not exactly pretty."

"I'll live," Jackie said uncertainly.

"Come on. I guess," Hyde motioned for Jackie to follow, which she did, tentatively.

"Where the hell is the six-pack I had next to the TV?" A red-haired woman who Jackie automatically labeled a skank met Hyde at the door, not noticing the petite brunette behind him. "Steven, that beer cost me a good…" she stopped talking when she noticed Jackie. "Who the hell is this? Steven, is this some whore? You're just like your fucking father."

"She's not a whore, ma," Hyde spat. "This is Jackie. We are _friends_."

"Hi, um, Mrs. Hyde," Jackie offered a weak smile and a small wave.

"Just call her Edna," Hyde instructed without tearing his glare away from his mother.

"Okay. Edna," Jackie repeated in a small voice.

"Friends. Bullshit," Edna looked Jackie up and down. "She's not anything special. But what should I expect from you, Steven. So cheap you're going to steal beer from your own mother. Cheap with the sluts you pick, too?"

"I am not a whore!" Jackie screeched, her mismatched eyes burning with fury. "And _I'm_ not anything special? Look at you! You're a… a… a washed up old _skank_! Steven, I'll see you later," Jackie spat.

"Thanks, ma," Hyde glared at Edna. "And since when is me stealing beer a big _issue_? I've been doing it since I was fourteen!"

Jackie stomped towards the Lincoln, not sure what to do next. A _whore_? No one had _ever_ dared to accuse Jackie Burkhart of whoring around to make her fortune. Why would she, of all people, bother? She could have any guy she wanted anyways, and she didn't _need_ the money. That was what her father was for. _Ugh!_ she thought bitterly.

Now she didn't have a clue about Steven. He didn't seem any happier with Edna than Jackie was, but still. If they ever got anywhere with their relationship and ended up _married_ or something, Jackie would have to be _related_ to that bitch! _I could never, ever in a million years deal with that woman as an in-law,_ Jackie thought. She and Hyde weren't even together, and she was already thinking of in-laws? Jackie shook her head. _Why am I thinking so far ahead anyways? We probably won't even end up dating._

"Hey," Hyde was suddenly outside the driver's side window. Jackie rolled it down. "What?" she sighed.

"Edna. She's a bitch," Hyde said simply.

"Oh, really? I thought she was just the sweetest lady!" Jackie said, in a semi-rare sarcastic moment. Hyde smirked. Maybe there was a chance for them after all. "Hey, since your house is, um…" Jackie paused, searching for the right word. "Do you want to come to my house? My mom's off in South America, so we don't have to worry about anyone being accused of being a whore," Jackie said, trying – and failing – to use a joking tone.

"Uh…" Hyde's mind raced with the possibilities. "Sure."

---

If you review I'll give you a cookie!


	12. Chapter 12

Not much of an author's note about this chapter. Just that I'm hoping for some nice reviews to motivate me in writing the next chapter. :

---

"So, this is my house," Jackie pointed to a mansion that sat atop a hill.

Hyde was silent. He usually wasn't one to worry about money or houses or really any material possession besides his stash and his music, but now he found himself comparing his home to Jackie's and wondering why she, the queen of material girls, would even talk to someone like him.

"Come on," Jackie called. Hyde, lost in thought, hadn't noticed that Jackie was already out of the car and on her doorstep. He followed her. "Want anything to eat? I can have the housekeeper get something."

_Housekeeper?_ Hyde thought. _Damn. She doesn't even cook for herself. Then again, why am I surprised?_ "Uh, can I just get some beer or something?"

"Steven," Jackie looked at him disdainfully. "From what Edna said, it sounds like you've got plenty tucked away somewhere." Hyde stared at her. "Oh, forget it, I'm not going to argue with you," Jackie rolled her eyes, and then called for the housekeeper to fetch a beer out of the kitchen.

"Come on, my room is up here," Jackie directed after the Latina housekeeper delivered Hyde's beer.

"Damn, Jackie. This is good stuff," Hyde nodded in approval.

Jackie just shrugged. "I don't like it. I prefer French wine."

"I prefer… my stash," Hyde commented. "But I don't suppose you've got any weed around."

"No, I don't," Jackie confirmed. "So, this is my room." She opened the door, revealing a room where the main theme seemed to be pink. The first thing Hyde's eye was drawn to was the bed. _Not likely,_ Hyde told himself.

Jackie caught his suggestive glance. "Not likely," she stated, as though reading his mind again.

_If I was, say, Kelso, I would probably whine about that,_ Hyde thought. _But I'm not Kelso… and thank god for that._ "Yeah, I know. Who do you think I am, Kelso?" Hyde demanded.

"Oh, Michael's not that bad. I actually can relate to him," Jackie shrugged. "I mean, we both dream of being models, for one thing."

"Yeah, you probably could. But Kelso? I don't see what Fez sees in him," Hyde shook his head.

Jackie laughed. "_Fez_? What d'you mean, 'what Fez sees in him'?"

"He's always saying how _beautiful_ he is. 'Michael Kelso is a work of art!'" Hyde mocked.

"It would probably be better for the women of Point Place if they were both gay," Jackie pointed out, still bitter from the distant memory of Kelso promising to go out with her, then knocking up that lumberjack Donna, and freaked out by Fez's constant attempts to jump her.

"True," Hyde agreed, thinking irritably of how it was essentially Kelso's fault that Eric kept trying to turn circles into an opportunity for him to lament his eternally screwed relationship with Donna.

"So," Jackie said, clapping her hands together. "Um… what d'you want to do?"

Hyde smirked. "Not _that_!" Jackie rolled her eyes. "Is that _all _you guys ever think about?!"

Hyde shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."

---

"So Fez is out of here, I'm pretty sure my dad kicked him out a while ago. Want to hang out in the basement, or what?" Eric asked Donna as they walked through the sliding door to the Formans' kitchen.

"Sure, that sounds good."

"Oh, Eric, your father wants you to sweep the driveway," Kitty said, looking up at the two teenagers who had just walked through the door. "Hi, Donna. Well, aren't _you_ getting chubby!" Kitty laughed, though she was becoming concerned.

Donna's eyes widened with shock. "Um, bye."

"Thanks, mom, I'm sure she really wanted to hear that," Eric rolled his eyes in irritation. "Very nice. 'Hi, Donna. Don't you look like a cow today! Nice weather, isn't it?'" he mimicked.

"Well, honey, I'm getting worried about Donna! She hasn't been herself lately, and Bob and Midge are noticing it too," Kitty said. "Bob was telling your father and me that Donna's been getting sick a lot lately, and the poor girl's figure is really beginning to take after her father's. It's almost like…" Kitty dropped the mixing bowl she had in her hands. "Eric. You _didn't_. Oh, my god."

"What?" Eric asked in confusion.

"Oh my god. How could you be such a… a _dumbass_?" Kitty's voice rose in an uncharacteristic moment of fury.

"What?!" Eric demanded, clueless as usual.

"You got Donna _pregnant_?!" Kitty yelled. "How could you?! Honey, I could have gotten you free condoms from the hospital! Your father's right, you _are_ a dumbass!"

Red walked through the swinging door with a smile on his face and a beer in his hand. "The Packers are kicking those Steelers' sorry asses." He noticed the stricken looks on both his wife's and his son's faces. "Eric, did you run over another cat?"

Kitty and Eric exchanged looks. They agreed that telling Red the news would not be beneficial to Eric's health. "No, he just, um, scratched the Vista Cruiser," Kitty improvised, smiling brightly.

"You scratched the car?" Red turned to face Eric, glaring.

"Uh…" Eric paused. He racked his brain, trying to figure out how to produce a scratch on the car that would justify this excuse. "Yeah. Uh, hold on." He raced out and pulled out his keys. _I can't believe I'm about to key my own car,_ Eric thought miserably. _Then again, it's probably better than being murdered by Red. Even though the Donna thing isn't my fault in the first place. Dammit, Kelso!_

"What are you doing?" Red was suddenly behind him. Eric stuffed the keys in his pocket and examined the scratch he'd just made on the Vista Cruiser. "Uh… I'm trying to figure out how to fix the scratch," Eric lied.

"I'll take care of it. You can't even change a tire, there's no way you could fix this," Red declared. He, too, examined the scratch. "I'll need…"

When Red started brainstorming, Eric took the opportunity to slip away to the basement, where he hoped to find Donna.

Instead, he was greeted by the sight of Fez on top of someone. "So, Fez, you finally found a girl? Congratulations. But go defile somewhere…"

"Oh, Kelso…"

"Oh my _god_!" Eric yelled, taking the steps two at a time and getting the hell out of that basement as fast as he possibly could.

---

"Oh my god. Oh my god," Eric said in a pained voice, sounding out of breath.

"What?" Donna asked flatly.

"Fez. Kelso. The couch in the basement. Oh my god, I'm scarred for life," Eric fell onto Donna's bed. "It was horrible!"

For the first time since Kitty's comment, Donna cracked a smile. "Are you serious? Fez and _Kelso_? They're the horniest guys we know!"

"Donna, this is psychological _torture_! It's worse than the time I caught my parents doing it! And I _never_ thought I would find something worse than that!" Eric shuddered.

Donna laughed. "God, I never saw that coming. Wasn't Kelso supposed to meet Cat Peterson or someone at the movies tonight?" Suddenly, her expression changed. "Oh my god. I'm carrying a gay man's child."

Eric stared at Donna, expecting an outburst. Instead, she burst out laughing. "Oh my god, that's hilarious!"

Eric joined in the laughter tentatively. "Yeah, I guess it is, when you think about it."

"D'you think they're both actually, like, _gay_?" Donna asked when the laughter subsided. "Or maybe this was like, a one-time thing?"

"I don't know, all I know is I saw Fez on top of Kelso in my basement, and it really disturbed me," Eric shrugged.

"You know, that whole thing actually made me forget for a few minutes," Donna remarked. When Eric looked blank, she clarified: "About what your mom said."

"My mom can be a ditz. Sometimes she doesn't think before she talks," Eric explained. "But I guess she's been talking to your parents, and they know something's up. And then she put the pieces together, so she knows what's going on."

"Oh, god," Donna flopped on her bed next to Eric.

"I thought you were going to tell your mom," Eric reminded her.

"I was. I am. I just never really found the right time," Donna said.

"You probably should, before my mom tells your parents. She doesn't even know… Oh, god. She thinks this was my fault. Not Kelso's," Eric realized.

"So if she tells my parents…" Donna began. She was interrupted by Bob, who burst into the room without knocking. "Get off my daughter!" he yelled.

"What?" Eric jumped up immediately, looking guilty, even though he hadn't done anything. Not that he hadn't been thinking about it.

"Dad, what's your _problem_?!" Donna demanded.

"Kitty just called and told Midge what happened. Donna, this isn't your fault, it's _his_," Bob said angrily. Then he turned his attention to Eric. "Get out."

"Dad, he didn't do anything!" Donna said, defending Eric.

"I heard all about it, don't try to protect him, Donna!" Bob said.

"Mr. Pinciotti, really, I didn't do anything!" Eric said. "Let me stay with Donna, she needs someone to talk to."

"She can talk to her mother," Bob said coldly. "Get _out_."

"Dad, it wasn't Eric! Just let me talk, okay?" Donna yelled. The room fell silent. "Thank you," she said. "Okay, remember when Eric took me to that party a few months ago?"

"I _knew_ it! I knew that was where it-" Bob began.

"Dad!" Donna glared at him.

"Sorry," Bob apologized.

"Well, I ended up kind of ditching him," Donna continued, sounding apologetic, "for Kelso. I didn't know either of them, and Kelso was so… good-looking. Then I ended up having a few beers, and apparently he took me upstairs and…" Donna broke off.

"What do you mean, _apparently_?" Bob demanded.

"I don't remember anything!" Donna responded.

"So how do you know it was Kelso, and not _this_ horny little…" Bob trailed off.

"Because Kelso told everyone," Donna replied simply.

"Oh," Bob said in a small voice, apparently embarrassed at the misunderstanding.

"Dad, Eric and I are barely even _dating_, okay?" Donna rolled her eyes. "And besides, he's the only person I know who's been helpful about any of this."

"Well, it sounds like he's the only one who knew about any of it," Bob shot back, sounding a bit hurt, as though he hated that his little girl was talking about her life to some other guy besides him.

"Yeah, Dad, he was, okay? Can you just leave us alone?" Donna said, sounding exhausted.

"Fine," Bob said, still sounding sad. He left the room, but Donna noticed that he'd neglected to close the door. She sighed. "Parents suck."

"Trust me, I know," Eric agreed, thinking of the scratch on his car.

---

"Is the kid from not-America still down here?" Red inquired grumpily as he stepped onto the landing. "Hey! Kelso! Not on my couch!" he yelled, seeing – and hearing – what Kelso was doing.

"Red!" Kelso jumped up, knocking over the little table in front of the TV.

Fez's head whipped around. "Uh, hello, Mr. Red," he said, sounding guilty and slapping a hand over what appeared to be a hickey on his neck.

"You! You're supposed to be mowing my lawn! Not…" Red put the pieces together. "KITTY!" he yelled hoarsely, running up the stairs two at a time.

Fez and Kelso exchanged a look. "You think we should probably get out of here?" Kelso asked.

"Probably," Fez nodded.

---

"Eric, I don't want the foreign kid around here anymore. The stupid one, either," Red said as soon as Eric had stepped through the door, a couple of hours later.

"Uh… Which stupid one?" Eric asked. With Red, it became hard to tell whom he was referring to when he called one of Eric's friends 'the stupid one' or 'that dumbass.'

"Kelso. The dumbest one. Although I'm beginning to think you'll give him a run for his money," Red said in his usual grouchy manner.

"Why?" Eric asked. Then he recalled the events he'd witnessed earlier that day. "Ohhhh. Yeah."

"You _knew_ about them?" Red demanded, disgusted. "What, do you have threesomes while you're down in that basement?"

"What are we talking about?" Kitty asked, coming through the swinging door from the living room.

"Nothing," Red said shortly.

"Oh, Michael and Fez? Honey, have a drink. I just threw back a couple of daiquiris and now I think it's just so cute!" Kitty laughed.

"Oh, god," Red grumbled, pushing past Eric and going outside. A few moments later, Eric heard the Toyota pull out of the driveway.

"Now, Eric, I'm a nurse. Make sure Kelso and Fez know…" Kitty's voice trailed off. "Oh, god. I need another drink." She rushed back into the living room.

---

"Uh, didn't you say _not_ this?" Hyde clarified, finding himself in a compromising position with Jackie on her bed.

"Damn, you're right," Jackie said, seeming to have just realized that her shirt was halfway off. "Oh, god. If my dad walks in he's going to kill you."

Hyde sat up, disappointed. _Why did you remind her, man?! _he demanded of himself. _Uh, because if I were to do to Jackie what Kelso did to Donna, I would be a hypocrite for burning Kelso anytime in the past or future,_ he reasoned. And, somewhere deep down, he knew that he would feel like shit for hurting Jackie, as something like that was sure to. But of course, he wouldn't acknowledge that stupid Forman-y reason.

"So." Jackie stood, her shirt back where it belonged. "Um."

"Want to go back to Forman's?" Hyde suggested.

"Good idea," Jackie nodded enthusiastically.

"Jackie, honey, are you in here?" a male voice called, accompanied by a sharp knock on Jackie's bedroom door.

Jackie shoved Hyde toward her giant closet. "Jackie, what the hell?" Hyde hissed. Jackie simply pushed him into the closet and shut the door enough to conceal him. "Yes, Daddy?"

"Honey, I'm leaving on business for a while. I don't know when I'll be back, but I'll be here in time for your birthday, all right? So a month or so at most. You'll be fine here with the maids, right?"

"Daddy, my birthday is-" Jackie began.

"I knew you'd be fine, pumpkin. I'll call you, okay? But I have to leave now, it's urgent…" The man, who Hyde assumed must be Jackie's father, continued with his excuses and apologies, which Hyde thought of as half-assed and fairly pathetic.

"Daddy, my birthday is in a couple of _weeks_!" Jackie called, but the bedroom door had already been shut. Hyde crawled out of his hiding place. "So that's your dad, huh?"

"Yeah," Jackie muttered.

"He doesn't even know when your birthday is?" Hyde demanded. "Edna even remembers my birthday… well, when she's sober. Except it's usually only so she can remind me how many years there are to go before she can kick my sorry ass out of her house."

"Daddy's really busy," Jackie shrugged. "But he always lets me get whatever I want for my birthday!" she said brightly.

"Let's just go back to Forman's place, alright?" Hyde said. Now that he had ruined any chance he'd had to relieve Jackie of the burden of being a virgin that day, her materialistic ways were beginning to annoy him again.


	13. Chapter 13

Well, since I'm on chapter 13, I should probably start wrapping this up. But with all the stuff I've introduced in the past couple of chapters, I'm not sure how long it'll take for me to get to an ending that satisfies me, and hopefully all of you. So, if you were wondering... well, I have no idea how many more chapters there will be. But definitely a few.

Anyways, read & review. I'm a bit disappointed with the number of reviews I've been getting, but I like this story, so I'm going to finish it anyways. :

---

"If Fez is down here, I'm going back home," Jackie hissed as she and Hyde descended the stairs to the basement. Instead of the usual scene of Eric sitting on the couch with Donna and Kelso or Fez, Eric was alone.

Hyde burst out laughing. "So, Forman, is this what you usually do when we're not around? Dance to American Bandstand with no pants on?"

"Hyde! Door! Knock!" Eric's voice rose a few octaves.

"We didn't know you'd be doing something so embarrassing," Jackie said matter-of-factly. "God, no wonder everyone says you're a geek!"

"Who says I'm a geek?" Eric demanded.

"So Forman, where's Donna?" Hyde asked, saving Eric from Jackie's prepared response of 'Everyone.'

"At home with a carton of ice cream," Eric responded.

"God, she's getting fat anyways. She doesn't need the extra food. Eric, go get her," Jackie commanded.

"I think she wants-" Eric started.

"Eric!" Jackie glared at him.

"Okay, okay!" Eric raised his hands in defeat. "Why do I-"

"Just go get her and bring her down here! I'm taking her shopping," Jackie declared.

"Jackie-"

"Eric! Go get her or I will tell the whole cheerleading squad about how you like to dance around your basement in your tighty whities!" Jackie threatened. Eric opened his mouth to retort, thought better of it, and stomped out of the basement.

"Jackie, you do realize that you can't hold that over his head," Hyde said.

"And why not?" Jackie demanded.

"Because no matter what he does or doesn't do, I'm telling everyone anyways," Hyde smirked.

_And that is why you are the boy for me,_ Jackie thought, pressing her lips against his.

---

"Donna, Jackie says she's taking you shopping," Eric informed Donna.

"I don't want to go shopping," Donna said flatly.

"That's what I told her." Eric sat down next to Donna on the couch in her living room.

"So why are you here?" Donna asked.

"Donna, I care about you. I want to be here, with you," Eric put his arm around Donna.

Donna sighed and shrugged his arm off. "She's blackmailing you, isn't she." She said this as a statement, not a question.

Eric sighed. "Yeah, yeah she is. See, everyone was gone, and I was watching American Bandstand, and I was in my underwear… you know, it's like, _invigorating_. So then there was this really catchy song and I started dancing, and…"

"Jackie walked in?" Donna finished.

"Worse," Eric said ominously, pausing dramatically. "Jackie and _Hyde_."

Donna burst out laughing. "So why are you even giving in? You know Hyde's just going to tell everyone no matter what. So who cares if Jackie does?"

"She'll tell all the cheerleaders," Eric whined. "It's embarrassing!"

"Oh, and what do _you _care what those sluts think?" Donna glared at him.

"Donna, I didn't mean it like that! I just meant… you know, they're _hot_, and if we ever broke up, I'd want to at least know I had a chance!" Eric explained, not taking note of the increasingly murderous look on Donna's face.

"Eric, if you'll remember correctly, I used to be friends with them. And trust me, I know you never had a chance," Donna stated.

"God, Donna, thanks for the confidence boost," Eric said sarcastically.

"Oh, come on! You were practically saying just now that you want to be with one of those whores!" Donna shot back. "I think now would be a good time for you to go."

"Well, if you're so concerned with everything being good and pure in this relationship, why are you pregnant with _Kelso's_ kid?" Eric spat, realizing just after he'd stormed out that he'd gone too far.

---

"Hey, Jackie?" Hyde began.

Jackie sighed. "What, Steven?"

"You wanna try dancing around in our undies like Forman?" he smiled wickedly, making it obvious that he had no intention of doing the Spotlight Dance along with Lou Rawls.

"You want to know what's really bad?" Jackie sighed again. A number of possible responses chased each other through Hyde's mind, each dirtier than the last. As he opened his mouth to answer, Jackie answered her own question. "I'm actually seriously considering that."

"Well, Jackie-" Hyde began, smirking.

"Hey, Hyde?" Eric burst through the door. "Uhhh… is this a bad time?" He caught the glances being passed between the pair and earned a roll of the eyes from Jackie and a disgusted look from Hyde.

"Well, Forman, you kind of ruined the moment," Hyde stated the obvious.

"What moment?" Eric asked curiously.

"Forman, what did you want?" Hyde asked, exasperated.

"And _where_ is Donna? Did I not tell you specifically to bring her back here so I could take her to the mall? Idiot," Jackie shook her head in irritation.

"I, uh, sort of messed things up with Donna," Eric explained.

"Big surprise there," Jackie interjected. Hyde smirked, agreeing with Jackie, but not wanting to piss off Eric and lose access to the basement.

"So what did you do, Forman?" Hyde asked in the disappointed manner of a kindergarten teacher who has just caught a student eating paste. Eric explained the short exchange.

"Eric! Moron! Why did you bring _that_ up?!" Jackie demanded when Eric told them what he'd said before storming out. "Now she's just going to eat and eat and eat and when she finally gets the sense to break up with you, she'll be too fat to get a date!"

"Forman, I don't know what to tell you. Go apologize or something, I don't know," Hyde suggested feebly.

"Buy her something. Buy her something _nice_. If I were her, I wouldn't let you in the door unless you had some expensive jewelry with you," Jackie said wisely.

"She's a girl. She knows what she's talking about," Hyde nodded in agreement with Jackie.

Eric stood in silence for a moment, contemplating what he should do. "Dammit, I was saving my money to go to the Star Wars convention in New York next year!" he pouted before stomping out of the basement.

"God, could he get any more dense?" Jackie demanded.

"If he did, he'd probably have to start wearing a helmet," Hyde replied. "He's getting worse than Kelso." He glanced at the TV. "So, uh, Jackie… still up for some dancing?"

---

"Hey Kelso," Eric greeted his friend as he walked into the Hub. "Hey Fez… oh, wait… Okay, bye."

"Where're you going? Are you going back to your house? Can you give us a ride?" Kelso asked.

"Uh, my dad doesn't want you hanging out there anymore," Eric said, secretly somewhat glad for once that his father had such a short temper. He wasn't sure if he could handle seeing Fez on top of Kelso on the couch again.

"Why?" Fez asked. "Ohhh… Well, Eric, umm…"

"Red saw you two making out," Eric said matter-of-factly.

"He knows," Fez whispered to Kelso.

"Well, yeah, Fez, he walked in on us too. Remember?" Kelso shrugged.

Fez's eyes widened, like a deer in the headlights. "Did you tell Jackie?"

"Why…?" Eric asked cautiously.

"Because if she thinks I love Kelso, she will never love me!" Fez lamented.

"So you like Kelso… _and_ you like Jackie…" Eric said slowly. "God, Fez, you _really _keep your options open, don't you?"

"Well, I figure, if the ladies don't want me… some man must, right?" Fez shrugged.

"Uhhh… sure, Fez," Eric backed away. "I have to go buy something for Donna. She's super-pissed." Eric glared at Kelso.

"What?! I never did anything to Donna!" Kelso said defensively.

"Oh, yeah, you just knocked her up. Nothing much there. No big deal," Eric said sarcastically.

Kelso looked shell-shocked. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, his usual dim-witted smile gone from his face.

Eric shot a panicked look at Fez, who shrugged. "Sorry, buddy. Can't help you."

"Forman, what did you say?" Kelso stared at Eric.

"Y-you… I thought… I thought you knew?" Eric said uncertainly.

"Knew _what_?" Kelso demanded.

"That Donna's… pregnant," Eric stated.

"Way to go, Eric!" Kelso cheered.

Eric rolled his eyes. "Kelso, I haven't done it with her. In fact, no one has… except…"

"Oh, I have." Kelso shot his hand into the air proudly. "I did it with your girlfriend! BURN!"

"Kelso, Donna is pregnant. You are the only person she has ever done it with," Eric said slowly, to make it easier for Kelso to comprehend. The look on Kelso's face remained blank. "You got her pregnant, dumbass!" Eric shouted.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kelso demanded, wide-eyed.

_Back to square one,_ Eric thought, frustrated. "Figure it out." He rolled his eyes and left the Hub.

---

"Don-naaa," Eric said in a sing-song voice.

"What do _you_ want?" she demanded through a crack in the door.

"I brought you some ice cream. It has cookie dough and I'm sorry I was an insensitive asshole, oh, and fudge swirl, too," Eric nodded.

Donna didn't crack a smile, but took the carton of ice cream from Eric's hand. "Thanks, but Jackie called. She says I shouldn't let you in until you've gotten me something shiny," she shrugged.

"Donna, come on," Eric sulked.

"I'm kidding, although I wouldn't say no to a new necklace," Donna gave a small smile and opened the door the rest of the way.

"So, you're not mad?" Eric asked tentatively.

"Eric, it's not like we had a huge fight or something. I mean, I'm still kind of pissed that you brought… you know… _that_ into it. But it's fine. Okay?" Donna assured him.

Jackie appeared behind Eric in the doorway. "Oh, Donna, you don't have to deal with this loser!" She slapped Eric upside the head. "Come on, let's go shopping and pick up cute guys at the mall! There's this really cute guy at that cheese shop… but he's probably too little for you. You're kind of a giant, if you hadn't noticed yet."

"Well, maybe you're just a midget," Donna retorted. "A bitchy one. Because-"

"Girlfight?" Eric asked excitedly.

Donna rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I was _going _to say, 'because Eric is _not_ a loser.' But now, I'm thinking I'd be lying if I said that. So, Jackie, shopping sounds good." She pushed past Eric and led the way down the driveway.

"But… You're not going to go, like, pick up some other guy, right?" Eric called after her. She didn't answer. "I brought you ice cream!" he yelled. Still no answer. "Aw, crap," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pockets and heading down to the basement.

"Hey, Forman," Hyde greeted Eric. "Where're the chicks?"

"Jackie took Donna to the mall so they could shop and quote unquote 'pick up cute guys' together," Eric replied grumpily.

"Oh," Hyde nodded. _What the hell? That bitch. She led me on,_ he thought angrily. _I should have known. She was just playing her little game, just like all of those slutty cheerleaders she hangs around with. Well, she can go to hell._ "So you and Donna? What's up with that?"

"I dunno, man. She's bipolar or something," Eric shook his head. "What about you and Jackie? I thought you guys had, like, a thing."

"Me and _Jackie Burkhart_?" Hyde scoffed. "Yeah, right. She's hot, man, but I'm not interested," he said, trying to reassure himself as much as Eric.

---

"So, Jackie, did you and Hyde have a fight or something?" Donna asked.

"What? No," Jackie said. "Why?"

"Well, just the fact that you're so into going to the mall to pick up guys," Donna reminded her.

"No, no, no, no, no. _You_ are picking up guys. _I_ am picking up a new sweater and some sandals," Jackie clarified. "Because _you_ are the one with a loser of a boyfriend. Not me."

"Thanks, Jackie, for your faith in Eric's and my relationship," Donna rolled her eyes. "So you and Hyde, you're really, like, _together_? He doesn't seem like the type to really settle down like that."

"Well, it's obvious that he's interested, Donna! And oddly enough, I like him too. So… I mean, we _should_ be together, right?" Jackie shrugged.

"Um, Jackie? Somehow I don't think Hyde has that kind of mentality," Donna said. "You may want to clarify that with him so you're both, like, on the same page."

Jackie sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I mean, I don't want to make a fool of myself."

"Yeah," Donna agreed. The girls sat in silence, contemplating their currently up-in-the-air relationships. Suddenly, Donna turned to face Jackie with a grin on her face. "Oh my god. Did you hear about Kelso and Fez?"

---

"So, man, what do we do now?" Eric asked, standing up from his stool at the bar.

"I dunno. Wanna go back to the basement?" Hyde suggested, knowing Jackie was bound to return at some point that night.

"What do we do with Lisa and Jenna?" Eric questioned, referring to the blonde twins he and Hyde had met at the bar.

"Bring 'em with us," Hyde shrugged.

"I dunno, man. Donna would get super pissed," Eric said, worried.

"Who's Donna?" a blonde girl with unnaturally large breasts had approached Eric.

"Uhh, she's my older sister," Eric improvised. "She doesn't like it when I bring girls home."

"Why? Is she ugly or something? Would she get jealous?" another blonde asked.

"Yeah, I guess," Eric shrugged.

"Oh, well. I guess we'll see you guys around. You got my number, right, Eric?" the first girl double-checked.

"No, it doesn't _matter_ if Donna finds out Eric brought you over, Lisa. Right, Eric?" Hyde raised an eyebrow.

Eric paused. "Yeah, I guess you're right."


	14. Chapter 14

For some reason, it didn't take me long to write this chapter. I started right after I finished the last one, and then finished it up tonight. Usually they take me a lot longer than this. Hopefully, the quick update is just because I was very inspired or whatever, and not because I rushed and did a shitty job.

Anyways, read & **review**:

---

"Eric, I need to talk to-" Donna began as she opened the door to the basement. What she saw caused her to fall silent midsentence.

"Uh, Donna… Hi," Eric said nervously.

"Ew, _that's_ Donna? You were right, Eric, she _is_ ugly," one of the blonde bimbos who had invaded the basement gave Donna the old once-over.

"Excuse me?" Donna looked daggers at both the blonde and Eric.

"Donna, come help me with these shopping bags!" Jackie called. Hyde's eyes widened behind his signature aviators. Even though he knew that Jackie had been playing him, he felt a pang of guilt for bringing some girl he had met at a bar into the basement, where he knew Jackie would see her.

Jackie appeared behind Donna in the stairwell. "Donna! Can you pull yourself away from lover boy long enough to-" she began incredulously. Then her eyes fell upon the same scene that had greeted Donna.

"I guess this solves your big mystery," Donna hissed. _What?_ Hyde thought. _What big mystery? Probably whether to buy platform shoes or clogs,_ he thought incredulously. _But how would this solve it?_

"But… I thought…" she faltered. "Oh, go to hell!" she snarled at Hyde, then stomped away. Her exit was marred, however, when she tripped on the first step and fell backwards, nearly knocking Donna over, to the great amusement of the blonde newcomers. _Damn whores,_ Jackie thought furiously.

"Classy, boys. Picked up some bimbos, in some seedy bar, no doubt, for a little confidence boost, or something? You're both ass holes," Donna spat.

"Oh, come on!" The shorter of the girls, who had been sitting on Eric's lap, suddenly stood to face Donna.

"Lisa…" Eric began.

"Shut it!" she commanded before directing her attention to Donna. "You're just jealous because your brother is so cute that he can actually get a date, whereas _you_ probably sit on your ass and eat ice cream in front of the TV every Friday night."

"My _brother_? Eric, what the hell is going on here?!" Donna demanded.

"Well, uh, _sis_, I know you don't like it when I bring girls home, but…" Eric shrugged, urging Donna to play along.

"You're right, I don't like it when you bring _other_ girls home. But obviously for a different reason than you've given these bimbos!" Donna glared at him.

"What's she talking about?" Lisa demanded.

"What I'm talking about is, up until I walked in on _this_, we were _dating_. But Eric, since you're so eager to be with other girls, I'll relieve you of the burden of having a girlfriend," Donna declared. She stood and stared angrily at a stunned, silent Eric for a few more seconds before turning and leaving, slamming the door behind her.

"You had a _girlfriend_?" Lisa raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"What about you? Was the midget _your_ girlfriend, too?" the second blonde demanded.

Hyde deliberated for a moment. "No, I can't say she was," he said finally.

---

"Those jackasses!" Jackie threw herself dramatically onto Donna's bed.

"I know! Eric and I really _were_ together. We'd been dating for, like, a month. It wasn't like we had some kind of weird thing that could go either way, like you and Hyde did," Donna seethed.

"But I really thought Steven cared about me," Jackie said in a small voice. Donna was surprised to see her usually borderline obnoxiously peppy friend looking as though she was about to burst into tears. She sat in silence for a long moment, trying to put her own problems out of her mind for just a few seconds so she could think of something to say to help Jackie. Suddenly, someone broke the silence by banging on the front door.

"Donna, let me in!" Someone was yelling loud enough that Donna could hear them, even though she and Jackie were shut up in her room. "Come on!" a second voice bellowed.

"Oh my god," Donna looked wildly around the room, not having a clue as to what she should do.

"It's him," Jackie said faintly. "He came because he wants to make up! He _does_ care!"

"Jackie, you just saw him entwined with some dirty whore!" Donna reminded her. "Take your own advice, and don't let him off this easily!"

"But… then he'll just go fool around with her!" Jackie said, wide eyed. "And then I'll have missed my chance, and… Oh, god, what do we do?!"

"I don't know, I mean-" Donna began.

"Donna, Hyde and Eric are here! I brought them up here for you," Bob popped his head in the door. Jackie promptly burrowed under the blankets on Donna's bed, and Donna buried her head in a pillow. "Thanks, Dad," she said sarcastically, her voice muffled.

"No problem!" Bob said, obviously oblivious to the tension. "Well, I'll just leave you kids alone."

"What do _you_ want?" Donna demanded, refusing to make eye contact with either of the boys.

"Donna, come on," Eric said pleadingly.

"Eric, shut up and stop pouting," Donna commanded. Eric obeyed, with an expression on his face as though he was a puppy and Donna had just kicked him. Donna noticed the similarity. "If you want to use your stupid helpless, hurt little puppy look on me, you're going to have to let me actually kick you first."

"Donna-" Eric began again.

"No! I know what I saw, and I know I'm sick of forgiving your stupid little _mistakes_," Donna crossed her arms.

"Donna, come on. No, _listen_, okay?" he said when he saw her mouth open to cut him off again. "Let's go to my house or something so we can talk in private."

Donna contemplated this. "Whatever," she allowed. "But don't start thinking I'm going to let this go. Because I'm not."

"Okay," Eric nodded. He led the way out of her room. Donna looked back at Jackie, who shot her a panicked look, before following. She responded with a shrug that seemed to say _You deal with your own problems your own way, and I'll go deal with mine._

"You're super pissed," Hyde surmised.

"Why would I be?" Jackie surprised herself by speaking coolly and calmly, when all she wanted in the world was to kick this jackass in the shins.

"I don't know, actually. Where's the guy you picked up at the mall? Why not have him comfort you?" Hyde retorted.

"What are you _talking_ about? All I got at the mall was a few sweaters, some new jeans, and a couple pairs of shoes! I didn't go to find some desperate guy," Jackie snapped.

"That's not how Forman made it sound," Hyde said.

"What did Eric say? Oh, god. He probably thought… And then he told you… So you thought…" Jackie thought aloud. Then she burst out laughing.

"I don't see anything funny," Hyde said coldly, immediately silencing Jackie's giggles.

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just… why didn't I realize it before? When we were in the car, Donna said something about me and you having a fight… wondering if that was why I was going to the mall to find guys. But I told her no; _she_ was the one who was supposed to be replacing her loser of a boyfriend. Eric probably thought the same thing Donna did: that _I_ was going to go pick up some loser. And then he told _you_! It all makes sense," Jackie explained, amazed that she'd been able to put the pieces together despite the tension in the room. She waited expectantly for Hyde's response.

"You know what? You're right. This is all Forman's fault. But Jackie, come on. I'm not your boyfriend," Hyde sank into Donna's desk chair.

---

"Eric, why should I forgive you? I mean, I walked into your basement, ready to resolve the stupid little fight we'd had earlier, and what do I find? Some skank with her fat ass plopped on your lap!" Donna said, exasperated, as she and Eric stepped into the basement.

"Kelso, get up!" Fez said hurriedly, pushing Kelso's face away from his own.

"You guys! Again?!" Eric sighed. "Okay, you need to find some other place to make out, because this is getting really unpleasant."

"What are you talking about? Making out? We weren't making out, I was just… uh, doing CPR. Fez choked on a gummy bear," Kelso improvised.

"Kelso, if he was choking, you'd have been doing the Heimlich maneuver on him," Donna rolled her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, that's what I meant," Kelso nodded.

"Kelso, the Heimlich doesn't involve mouth-to-mouth," Eric reminded him.

"Duh, Eric, I _know_ what the Heimlich is!" Kelso rolled his eyes. "Whoa, Donna, you're really packing on the pounds!"

"Kelso, now would be a good time to run away," Fez whispered, noticing the furious look on Donna's face. Donna lunged forward as though she was going to attack Fez. "Ai, no!" Fez screamed in a quite girlish voice and ran up the stairs into the Formans' kitchen, Kelso following quickly behind.

"You two?!" Red's roar could be heard loud and clear all the way in the basement. "You go defile someone else's house! If I see you back here again, just remember, I'll have my deer rifle ready!"

Eric and Donna exchanged a glance, then burst out laughing as they heard Fez and Kelso running away screaming. "Okay, you know what?" Donna asked as soon as the laughter had subsided.

"What…?" Eric responded nervously.

"That just put me in a really good mood. So…" Donna trailed off.

"So…" Eric repeated, urging her to continue.

"So instead of ending this completely and getting it over with like I was planning on doing, I'm going to give you a chance to grovel and try to win me over again," Donna announced. "Bye!"

---

"Well, Steven, either we're together or we're not. Pick one. And if you pick the second option, that means no jumping me, either! No making out in the basement, and not a chance of you getting me to dance around in my underwear," Jackie said with finality.

"Look, I'm not a _commitment_ kind of guy, okay?" Hyde began. "Look at my mother! She brings home a new guy every Saturday. It's in my genes. And as for you dancing around in your underwear, you never _did_ that anyways!"

"Yeah, well, I came real close!" Jackie retorted. "And don't try to use your stupid genes as an excuse. I mean, look at my father! I'm nothing like him."

"He's a materialistic, self-centered ass hole," Hyde stated. He had planned on saying that he saw no difference between Jackie and her father… but couldn't bring himself to say something like that.

"Yeah, I know," Jackie agreed bitterly. "Thanks for reminding me. Not that I needed reminding. If you remember, I'm the one whose birthday he's forgotten every year since I was eleven."

"Don't try and make it sound like _you're_ the one here who had the worst childhood," Hyde glared at her through his glasses. "Want to hear about mine?"

Jackie winced. There weren't a lot of subjects that could get Hyde fired up, but this appeared to be one of them. "Steven, I was just… I wasn't thinking-"

"Obviously," Hyde sneered. "But we can't expect Little Miss Cheerleader to actually use her brain, now can we? That would just put too much stress on her pretty little head."

Jackie's sympathetic moment was gone. "Just because you're life has been fucked up doesn't mean you can treat everyone like crap just because they didn't grow up in the slums with their whore of a mother! It's not my fault I was born to a rich, self-centered ass hole, just like it's not _your_ fault that you were born to a whore! So you can _drop_ the tough ass hole act, because I know you're more than that, and I'm sick of you putting on your stupid little show." She glared at Hyde, as though daring him to defy her and deny what she'd said.

"You're right," he said simply after a few moments.

"Huh?" Jackie said intelligently, taken aback by his answer.

"I'm not saying it again." He crossed his arms.

"Wait… you're not denying any of that?" Jackie asked, confused.

"Does it sound like I've denied any of it?" Hyde raised an eyebrow. Had Jackie not just gone on a tirade about his attitude – which, coincidentally, showed that she was much smarter than he'd given her credit for – Hyde probably would have thrown in another comment about her tiny cheerleader brain.

"No… but I'm waiting for the catch. I mean, you're usually not the type to just take something like what I'd just said in stride," Jackie pointed out.

"You told me to drop the act," Hyde reminded her.

"Oh-" Jackie started.

"In here!" a familiar voice hissed. Almost immediately, Kelso and Fez burst into Donna's bedroom.

"What the hell?" Hyde demanded.

"Red – kicked – us – out," Kelso panted.

"Why?" Hyde asked curiously.

"He caught us making… um… making…" Fez began, then tried to cover up his slip.

"Making quilts!" Kelso threw in.

Hyde looked amused. "Quilts, Kelso?"

"Oh, come on. Donna told me," Jackie rolled her eyes.

"Told you what?" Kelso demanded nervously.

"She told me Eric saw you making out on the couch in the basement!" Jackie said.

Hyde burst out laughing. "You two?" He could hardly speak through his uncontrollable laughter. "_Together_?"

"Please, Hyde, don't tell anyone!" Fez pleaded.

"Oh, don't worry, little buddy. I won't tell anyone," Hyde smirked. Fez and Kelso sagged with relief. "I'll tell _everyone._"

---

Review? Pretty please? -bats eyelashes-


	15. Chapter 15

Thanks, guys, I got more than one review last chapter, which was a pleasant change. :P

Just to let you know, this may be my last chapter for a week or two. I'm going on vacation this week, and next week I'll have marching band camp [which, I might add, I'm not looking forward to. So this week, there will be NO updates, and the week after that I won't have a ton of time to write, so I'm not sure how long it'll take for me to get the next chapter up. Just giving you a heads up.

Anyways, hopefully you'll like this chapter and REVIEW!

---

"Hyde, no!" Fez pleaded. "We'll get beaten up! The football team will gang up on me and steal all my candy!"

"Oh, grow up!" Jackie rolled her eyes. "Now go find someplace else to make out, you pervs. Steven and I were in the middle of something important."

"Ooh, let's go out in the hall and eavesdrop!" Fez said excitedly.

"All right!" Kelso said with even more enthusiasm. Jackie responded with a swift kick in the shins. "I said go away!" she glared at them both.

"You won't even know we're there. I promise!" Kelso pleaded.

"Yes, we will be very sneaky!" Fez promised.

"Want me to kick you too?" Jackie threatened.

"Ai, no!" Fez backed away slowly, then ran down the hall.

"Thanks a lot, Fez!" Kelso yelled after him. "You know, eavesdropping just isn't as much fun alone." Jackie wound up, preparing to kick him again. "Okay, _okay_!" He followed Fez. Jackie slammed the door behind them.

_Dammit,_ Hyde thought, suddenly feeling a bit claustrophobic. All he wanted right now was to get the hell out of Donna's room and as far away from Jackie as possible. Sure, he wouldn't mind another make out opportunity, but it didn't look like Jackie was interested in that right now. She was into her "let's talk about your feelings" mode, and Hyde had already been forced to acknowledge that she'd been right about something that day. He didn't need to risk that again. "Uh, we should probably wait a few minutes. You know, make sure they're really gone," he said in a pathetic attempt to stall their conversation.

"Yeah, you're right," Jackie nodded, clapping her tiny hands together. She walked over to Donna's desk, picked up a battered notebook, and began to read. After she'd giggled a few times, Hyde's curiosity got the best of him. "What _is_ that?"

"Donna's journal," Jackie shrugged.

Hyde stared at her. "Isn't there some kind of girly _code_ or whatever about not reading each other's journals?"

"It's not like she'll ever find out," Jackie rolled her eyes. Hyde smirked with appreciation for her disregard for rules, however trivial the rule in question happened to be. He plopped down next to her on Donna's bed. "What's so funny?" he asked, as Jackie erupted into another fit of giggles.

"Oh, my god! She had a giant secret crush on you in eighth grade!" Jackie giggled, flipping forward in the notebook. "And ninth!"

"What? We didn't even know each other then," Hyde pulled the book away from Jackie. His eyes scanned the pages, then he thrust it back at Jackie.

"Oh, my god, Steven, you're just so _hot_!" Jackie said in her sexiest, most seductive voice. Hyde stared at her. _One minute she wants to talk, the next she wants to do it or something,_ he thought. _Not that I'm complaining._ He moved closer to her, hopefully. "Your sideburns just make me," Jackie glanced down and referred to the journal, "_swoon_!" She burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. "Can you _believe_ Donna wrote all that? Oh, Steven, your sideburns! They just make me _swoon_!" Jackie mocked. "I'm never going to let her live this down."

"How are you going to explain where you found that out?" Hyde raised an eyebrow, pissed off that he'd actually believed he was getting somewhere.

"Oh, come _on_, Steven. You're so naïve," Jackie shook her head. Hyde glared at her through his glasses. How did _she_ have the right to call _him_ naïve? _She's a freakin' sophomore!_ Hyde thought indignantly. "Not that I expected you to know much about the rumor mill at our school. Guys don't usually gossip. But they usually at least know that _girls_ do," Jackie said condescendingly. "I'll just tell Donna I heard it from Cat Peterson or Fez or someone. Yeah, I'll say I heard it from Fez. He comes in here all the time and reads her journal. I guess he hasn't gotten as far as eighth grade yet, or we would've all heard about it."

Hyde shrugged. Jackie sighed. "What's wrong?" she asked. Hyde opened his mouth, ready to use his prepared response of 'nothing.' Jackie interrupted before he could speak. "And if you say 'nothing,' I will kick you! You said you'd drop your stupid emotionless tough guy act," she reminded him.

Hyde glared at her. Either he was going to have to discuss his feelings, or he'd end up pissing her off majorly for the second time that day. The first was something he didn't do on principle; the second was something that could screw up his chances with the only girl he'd ever been interested in for something more than just a one-night stand. "Wanna go to dinner or a movie or something?" he blurted. _What the hell did you just do, man? You're going to have to sell some of your stash to get enough money to pay for a date!_ he said to himself furiously.

The look on Jackie's face made the hassle worth it. Her face lit up like she'd just been presented with a one-of-a-kind pair of designer shoes. She threw her arms around Hyde. "Yessss! Oh, Steven, I told you that you had to pick to either be my boyfriend or not, and you picked yes! Yayyyy! Wait until I tell Donna!" She planted a quick kiss on his lips. "I have to go tell Donna, and then I have to find something to wear! Pick me up at six o'clock tomorrow night," she instructed. "I'll see you later!"

She rushed out of Donna's room as quickly as her short legs would take her, leaving Hyde looking dumbstruck. "What just happened?" he asked himself aloud.

---

Jackie found Donna sitting in her backyard alone, apparently deep in thought. "Oh my god, guess what! Guess what, guess what, guess what!"

"You dumped Hyde because he's a dumbass like Eric and now you want to go buy some new shoes because it's such a cleansing experience?" Donna suggested.

"No! Well, you're a little bit right. I do want to go buy some new shoes, but not because I broke up with Steven," Jackie said brightly. When Donna didn't guess why she _really_ wanted to go shopping for the second time that day, Jackie filled her in. "We're going out tomorrow night!" she squealed.

"Jackie!" Donna yelled. "You just _caved_? Just like that?"

"No, Donna, you weren't there! He was being so _sincere_," Jackie explained. She filled Donna in on what had been said before Fez and Kelso had arrived. "He didn't even try to deny any of it!"

"But you're forgetting how he called you a stupid cheerleader," Donna reminded her with a hard voice.

"Well, once I blew up at him, he started taking me seriously!" Jackie told her. "You weren't there, you've never seen that side of him."

"Well, yeah, no one but you has! Don't you think he could've just been acting or something? Putting on a show? And maybe he _hasn't_ been pretending about anything with everyone else? Jackie, I think you have everything backwards," Donna said.

"Okay, fine, Donna. Just because Eric is still an ass hole, you're just going to be negative and try to ruin everything for me. Fine. Well, I'll talk to you later when you want to be a little less bitchy," Jackie said calmly.

"Jackie, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to look out for you! And you know I've been bitchy lately because of… you know," Donna explained.

"You can't keep hiding behind that excuse, Donna. Even pregnant people are happy sometimes," Jackie said, then turned and left. Donna made no effort to follow her.

---

"You _what_?!" Eric exclaimed. "You asked Jackie out? Man, she's evil incarnated!"

"I don't know what I was thinking, man. I can't pay for a date. I usually just steal everything I'd have to pay for, but you can't do that with dinner at some fancy Jackie Burkhart-approved restaurant," Hyde grimaced.

"You could always dine and dash," Eric suggested.

"Yeah, but in front of Jackie? If I was going by myself I'd do that, but if I told Jackie that was what we were gonna do, she'd pay for everything herself," Hyde pointed out.

"So? That solves your problem!" Eric looked at Hyde as if he were an idiot.

"Man, I can't make Jackie pay!" Hyde smacked Eric.

"Ow! Damn, Hyde!" Eric glared at Hyde and rubbed his victimized arm. "Okaaay, what, d'you want me to lend you money or something?"

"No! Come on, man, I'm not a charity case," Hyde returned Eric's glare.

"Well, what d'you want from me!" Eric threw his arms in the air, wincing at the pain from the one Hyde had punched.

"I don't want anything from you, Forman," Hyde said icily. "I never _asked_ for anything. All I did when I came over here was tell you I asked her out."

"Okay, okay," Eric relented. "So what are you gonna do?"

Hyde shrugged. "Pawn some of Edna's crap. She'll be too drunk to miss any of it for a few days, and then I'll be able to convince her she never had any of it."

Eric raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure-"

"Yeah, Forman, I'm sure it'll work, I'm sure I don't need any of your money, and I'm sure I don't care if Jesus frowns upon stealing," Hyde interrupted. "Does that cover it?"

"Just about," Eric shrugged.

---

"Ma? You home?" Hyde yelled as he entered his house. All he could hear was the sound of Eric's car driving away. No answer from Edna. _Surprise, surprise,_ Hyde thought sarcastically. To be sure, he checked his mother's room. Empty. Eerily so. _Something's not right,_ Hyde realized. He strode over to his mother's dresser. The extensive collection of makeup that was usually strewn on top was gone. Upon opening the drawers, Hyde found that they were all empty. "Crap. She took everything and left," he thought in irritation, more worried that he didn't have anything to pawn to pay for his date than that his mother had disappeared.

One lone box sat under the table beside Edna's bed. Upon examination, Hyde realized that it was a battered, shabby old jewelry box. _Jackpot,_ he thought. Inside, instead of his mother's extensive collection of jewelry purchased from mail-order advertisements in magazines, he found a note.

_Steven,_

_I knew you'd come snooping through my room one of these days to try and find my jewelry so you could sell it to pay for God only knows what. Your father always did the same thing when he wanted to go find some whore to fuck if we had a fight. Well, too bad. I've hidden it away somewhere, and you're never going to find it! So there, you ungrateful little bastard._

"Great, thanks, Ma," Hyde said bitterly to himself. He saw that the handwriting on the note was shaky and realized his mother had most likely been drunk when she wrote it. _So no way did she come up with some genius place to hide the stuff,_ he realized. He lowered himself to the ground and peered under Edna's bed. Sure enough, he could see a necklace glinting amongst several beer bottles. In a few minutes, he'd located and collected all of the jewelry.

He picked up the phone, preparing to call Eric to pick him up again. Before he could pick up the receiver, the phone rang. "Hello?" he answered, sounding disgruntled.

"Steven!" Jackie squealed. "I'm at the mall and I was wondering which color shoe I should buy, so I thought I would call you and see what you thought."

_Am I going to have to deal with this constantly from now on?_ Hyde thought, slightly frightened. "Jackie, why can't you ask Donna?"

"She's being a bitch," Jackie replied matter-of-factly. "Now, there's purple, maroon, lavender, blue, navy blue, midnight blue, orange, burnt orange, red-orange, red, violet-red, grey, smoky grey, brown, coffee, chocolate-"

"I thought you were talking about shoes, not food," Hyde said, confused.

"_Duh_, Steven! Coffee is a shade of _brown_. Chocolate is a shade of _brown_!" Jackie explained. "Now-"

"Where did you get my number?" Hyde interrupted.

"Donna's _journal_, Steven! Remember, she had it in there, outlined in hearts in case she ever got up the nerve to use it? From eighth grade? Duh! Try to keep up, here! And you made fun of _me_ for being stupid," Jackie scoffed. "Now there's also green, forest green, lime green, black, white, winter white, and off-white. Which should I get?"

"Uh… can you repeat those?" Hyde said stupidly.

Jackie groaned. "Ugh, Steven, you're hopeless. I'll just pick, okay? Bye!" She hung up.

"What the hell was that?" Hyde muttered to himself, dialing Eric's number.

---

Review! Make me smile. And I'll make more of an effort to get the next chapter (which will include the date) up sooner than later. ;


	16. Chapter 16

Sorry this took me so long to write! I'd warned you that it might take a while, but I thought it would have been done last week. For some reason, this chapter took me a while to write, and added to the week I was away without computer access, it ended up taking a long time. But I think I'm pretty happy with it now that it's done, hopefully you'll all feel the same. So enjoy, and don't forget to review!

---

"Hey, Forman, wanna come give me a ride back to your house?" Hyde said as soon as he heard his friend answer the phone. He made it clear that this was more of a command than a question.

Eric sighed. "Come on, man, I have better things to do. Like…" He was silent, trying to think of an appropriate lie, when in reality he was sitting on his bed playing with his Star Wars 'action figures.'

"Like sucking up to Donna?" Hyde snorted. "Or… playing with your G.I. Joe dolls?"

"I'm not playing with the G.I. Joes, I'm playing with…" Eric trailed off, realizing that in Hyde's misunderstanding little world, rare Star Wars action figures weren't much more mature than G.I. Joes. "They're not _dolls_, they're _action figures_!" he said instead.

"Alright, whatever, Forman. Put down your Star Wars toys and come pick me up," Hyde said.

"They're not _toys_, they're valuable collectors' items that'll be worth, like, a million dollars thirty years from now!" Eric said defensively.

"I don't care what the hell they are, Forman, just come pick me up already!" Hyde ordered.

---

"YOU BITCH!" a crazed female voice shrieked through the phone. Jackie held the phone away from her ear. "Uh, Donna…? Should I even ask?"

"How much did you read?" Donna demanded.

Jackie surprised herself by not paling at the discovery that she'd been found out, but smirking at the fact that there wasn't a damn thing Donna could do about what Jackie had read. "Here. Let's play a game. I'll quote your journal, and you guess where it's from!"

"JACKIE!" Donna yelled. "Just _tell _me, dammit!"

" 'Oh my god, that Steven Hyde is just _so_ hot!' " Jackie mocked.

"Jackie-" Donna interrupted.

" 'His sideburns just-' " Jackie quoted.

"JACKIE! SHUT UP!" Donna yelled.

"Why, Donna? Why should I let _you_ tell me what to do?" Jackie demanded.

"Because you tell _me_ what to do all the time?" Donna suggested sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, you… you deserve it!" Jackie shot back feebly.

"How so?" Donna retorted, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You stole _one_ of my boyfriends, and now you want the one I've got now!" Jackie's eyes widened in horror as she heard her reply coming out of her mouth. The phone line was silent.

"Jackie. What the hell have you been smoking?" Donna asked, her voice a mixture of equal parts genuine worry (this _was_ the seventies, after all, god only knew what Jackie'd been taking) and anger.

"Uh…" Jackie stalled.

"What are you _talking_ about, I stole your boyfriend? And who says I want _Hyde_?" Donna scoffed. "Just because _you_ drop your standards that low doesn't mean _I'm_ going to!"

"Um, Donna? Can I point out a couple of things?" Jackie spat; Donna's statement had touched a nerve. Jackie Burkhart did _not_ drop her standards. She got what she wanted, when she wanted it. And at this point, Steven Hyde was what she wanted. "First: if you'll recall, you _knew_ I was about to ask Eric out, but you said yes when he asked _you_ out. That's as good as stealing my boyfriend."

"Well, if I hadn't 'stolen your boyfriend,' you never would've gotten together with your beloved _Hyde_," Donna interjected.

"Donna?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut _up_ and let me talk!" Jackie commanded before continuing with her outburst. "Second: don't talk to me about dropping my standards by dating Steven when you filled up quite a few pages with your pathetic drooling over him! Don't make me keep quoting that damn journal, Donna, because I _so_ will. And I'll quote it to everyone else I know, not just _you_. Oh, and I happen to _know_ your darling geek-boy, by the way," Jackie threatened.

"So you know, Jackie, my darling geek-boy and I aren't even _together_ right now! See, unlike _you_, I'm not going to forgive my boyfriend – I mean, _ex-_boyfriend – so quickly for the hooker incident," Donna reminded her. "So maybe I'll decide to go for your beloved burnout instead, and you can keep Eric. That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

This threw Jackie for a loop. "What?"

"You keep complaining about how I stole Eric away from you. Keep him! I'll have a go with Hyde," Donna said, sounding serious.

"Oh, come _on_, Donna," Jackie laughed. "I've finally gotten him to actually define us as something. I'm not going to give up on him yet. Just because your precious Eric turned out to be a scrawny geek doesn't mean I'm going to give up on Steven to make you feel better. It's not _my_ fault you can't stay in a stable relationship."

"You're telling _me_ about stable relationships?" Donna demanded. "Jackie, look how long it took you to get him to even admit that you were _in_ one!"

"Yeah, well, I got him to, didn't I? And considering that I had to get Steven Hyde to admit he was dating _me_… That's a bit harder than getting some desperate loser like Eric to say he has a girlfriend!" Jackie pointed out.

"He's not a desperate loser!" Donna retorted.

"Donna, did you or did you not see him in the basement with a hooker?" Jackie snorted.

"How d'you know she really was a hooker?" Donna asked, momentarily forgetting her anger in favor of curiosity. "I was just saying that…"

"Duh, Donna, that was Lisa Hutchins. _Everyone_ knows what she does on weekends," Jackie rolled her eyes at her friend's ignorance.

"Okay, so he's desperate!" Donna relented. "God, I've known that since I first met him! He just came off as a…"

"Geek? Loser? Nerd?" Jackie suggested. "All of the above?"

"Jackie, shut up," Donna sighed. "But for some reason, I _like_ him! A lot. I don't know, it's like, sometimes I think he's such a pathetic loser, but then a few minutes later I can't help but think, 'oh, he's so sweet!' "

"Yeah, I guess I see what you mean," Jackie shrugged. "But what do you want me to do? Teach him how to be less of a loser?" She snorted at the absurdity of the idea.

"Could you?" Donna asked, an eager edge creeping into her voice. "Jackie, that would be great! You're a bitchy popular girl, so you hang out with all the cool popular guys all the time! Could you really try to help him?"

Jackie sat in stunned silence for a moment. She hadn't been serious, yet Donna seemed to think she'd just had a brilliant idea. "Donna, we met at one of Cat Peterson's parties. You hang out with the same people. Why can't _you_ help him?"

"First of all, with me, he'd think I was criticizing him or something, and I'd end up seeing another hooker on his lap. With you, he'll know you know what you're talking about, and he also won't be surprised that you're criticizing him. It's what you _do_," Donna pointed out. "And second… I've never really been friends with any of those people. They just liked having me around because I was smarter than them and I would do their homework for them," she said sadly.

Jackie found herself pitying Donna. "Oh, Donna…" she said quietly, trying to think of a way to cheer her friend up. "Let's go shopping together tomorrow!"

"Hey, don't go changing the subject! Will you or will you not try to help Eric?" Donna demanded.

"I think he's too far gone. And come on, Donna! You like him _now_, even though he's a total loser, not to mention really scrawny and barely taller than you, so why would you want to change him? There's got to be something you see in him," Jackie pointed out.

Donna sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I guess his geekiness can be lovable."

"Uh, I wouldn't say _that_," Jackie sniffed. "So. Shopping tomorrow?" she said brightly.

"I dunno," Donna said dejectedly, still brooding over the unpleasant memory of her old 'friends.'

Jackie sighed. "Tell you what. I'll come over tonight, and I'll pick up some ice cream and popcorn on the way. Sound better?"

"Wow, Jackie, you actually sound like you're doing something nice for someone else," Donna said sarcastically. "But that sounds great."

"Yay! Slumber party!" Jackie squealed. "I'll see you in twenty minutes!"

---

"Jackie, what are you doing here?" Eric stared at the petite girl who had just bounced up his driveway, dragging a large shopping bag along with her.

"Donna and I are having a slumber party to cheer her up!" Jackie said brightly. "I brought ice cream."

"Am I invited?" Eric raised an eyebrow.

"No, moron, you're the reason she's depressed!" Jackie's bright smile turned into a glare.

"Well, I'm depressed too, okay? A nice dirty pillow fight would _really_ cheer me up," Eric informed her.

"Oh my god, I have no idea what she sees in you!" Jackie threw her free hand in the air and stalked off through the garage towards Donna's house.

"She still sees something in me?" Eric called hopefully after her. Jackie just let out a frustrated "Ugh!" before disappearing into Donna's house.

"Hyde picked a good night to come over," Eric smirked as he slid into the Vista Cruiser.

---

"I brought double fudge ice cream!" Jackie sang. She began laying out the food on the table in Donna's living room. "Oh, and I saw the scrawny neighbor boy in the driveway."

"What was he doing out?" Donna asked, surprised. It was nearly eleven thirty at night.

"Who knows? Picking up more strippers, probably," Jackie sniffed.

"Shut up, Jackie, Hyde did the same thing, and you're going out with him tomorrow! You can't just forgive him but then turn around and use then whole issue as ammunition against Eric," Donna glared at her friend.

"Well, if I'm not going to be mad at Steven, I've got all this extra anger, and I might as well let it out on Eric," Jackie shrugged.

"Jackie, you know what? Let's just go to sleep. You've got a big day tomorrow," Donna rolled her eyes and headed for her room.

"Bitch! I don't have a ride home!" Jackie called after her. When it was clear that Donna wasn't returning, Jackie flopped angrily onto the couch and curled up into a ball. "I cannot believe I'm sleeping on a couch."

---

"Come on, Forman, why watch through the window when we could just bust in?" Hyde snorted. "Look, this window goes right into the living room, and it's half open! It's like they're inviting us!"

"I don't think this is going to help things with Donna," Eric said skeptically.

"Whatever, man, if you want to be a wimp, I'll see you later. I'm going in." With that, Hyde clambered through the window and landed in the Pinciottis' living room.

"DONNA!" Jackie shrieked. "SOMEONE'S-" A hand covered her mouth.

"Shut _up_, Jackie!" a familiar voice hissed in her ear.

"Steven?" she asked, her voice muffled by his hand.

Hyde removed his hand. "Yeah, hi," he nodded, suddenly feeling quite stupid.

"What are you doing here?" Jackie stared at him in confusion.

"Uh…" He was feeling more idiotic by the second. "Well, I was, uh, in the neighborhood, and… well, Forman said you were here," he said weakly.

"You broke into Donna's house to see me?" Jackie said, her voice and face unusually devoid of emotion.

"Well, uh…" Hyde began lamely.

"Oh, Steven, that's so _cute_!" Jackie squealed.

"Jackie, keep it down!" Hyde hissed. "And I'm not _cute_."

"Yes, you _are_!" Jackie insisted. "You're my little Puddin' Pop."

"What?" Hyde took a step backwards. _Did she seriously just say that?_ he thought, completely taken aback. A snort of laughter issued from the window. Eric was halfway through the window. "Shut up, Forman!" Hyde glared at Eric and shoved him back out the window.

"Ow! Hyde!" Eric could be heard from the ground beneath the window. "Dammit!"

Hyde slammed the window shut. "Well, now that we're alone…"

"What the _hell_ was all that noise?" Donna stormed into the living room. She groaned when she saw who was there. "Come on, Hyde, you're going out with her tomorrow. I don't care how horny you are, just wait until you're in the backseat tomorrow night for whatever it is you're planning on doing, okay? Don't do it on the couch in my _living room_!"

"Come _on_, Donna, we weren't going to prove our love on your couch!" Jackie rolled her eyes. "Wait. Were we?" She turned to Hyde and stared at him questioningly.

"Uh…" he stalled. "I dunno. Did you want to?" Jackie glared at him. Apparently, that had been the wrong thing to say. "I mean, no."

"Seriously, Donna, there's no banner or candles or anything!" Jackie regained her haughty, indignant attitude.

"My parents do it in here all the time, I don't see what's wrong with it," Donna pointed out.

"Ugh!" Jackie shrieked, disgusted. Hyde's mind was filled with interesting thoughts of Midge in bed; he tried to block Bob out of the scenarios. Donna smirked; it was obvious that her statement had had the desired effect on Jackie. "Well, I'm going back to bed," she said cheerfully.

"So, Steven, she's right. We have a date tomorrow. Why are you here?" Jackie inquired.

"Uh…" Hyde stalled.

"You missed me! Didn't you, Steven? You _did_ miss me! That's so cute!" Jackie exclaimed.

"You're both adorable, now shut up so I can get some sleep!" Donna called. Jackie and Hyde exchanged an amused look.

"Well, if we're going out tomorrow, I should get my beauty sleep," Jackie sighed. "I really don't want to sleep on this couch… Whenever I stay somewhere alone like this I always feel like an axe murderer is going to climb through the window and kill me," she shuddered. It was obvious from the look on her face that she was serious.

"I would offer to take you home, but… well, I don't have a car, and you'd probably be just as alone there as you would be here, so…" Hyde shrugged.

Jackie slumped back onto the couch. "How were you going to get home, anyways?" she asked, curiously. "I mean, it's past Eric's bedtime. He's not going to want to take you home," she said sarcastically.

Hyde was caught off-guard by the question. He hadn't considered the answer. All he'd planned was to come into town to sell his mother's old jewelry. But at this hour? _I need to start checking where I get my stash,_ he thought, annoyed. "I could walk," he said, more to brainstorming to himself than answering Jackie's question.

Jackie sighed. "Why don't you just stay here or something and keep me company?"

"Protect you from all the axe murderers, you mean?" Hyde smirked, attempting to disguise the fact that he was subconsciously thinking fast about all of the possibilities this invitation opened up.

As usual, Jackie could tell what he was thinking. "Yes, that would be very kind of you. But I'm still not proving my love on the same couch where Donna's parents have their gross old people sex!"

"Proving your love?" Hyde raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Shut up, Steven," Jackie glared at him, but was unable to keep from grinning at him. "Look, I know what you're thinking, and you're not going to convince me!"

"Okay, whatever. But I can still-" Hyde started.

"Steven, shut up and come over here, I'm tired and I want to go to sleep!" Jackie held her glare this time. She laid down on the couch, resting her head on an uncomfortable-looking decorative pillow. Hyde barely managed to squeeze next to her; it would have been a tight squeeze for him even without Jackie already taking up half the couch. The effort proved to be worth it. All discomfort was forgotten when she curled up against him, gazing sleepily into his eyes. He wrapped his arms around her tiny body and fixed his eyes upon her, watching her until she fell asleep, her worries of mad axe men forgotten. Kelso's words floated into his head: _"Why cuddle when you could do it?"_ Kelso had no idea what he was talking about.

---

Okay, I know I said the date would be in this chapter, but this one is longer than most of my other chapters as it is, and I wanted to get it up as soon as possible. So, next chapter. I promise. Reviews?


	17. Chapter 17

Well, I don't have much of an author's note this chapter except to say that the best part of writing this story is reading the reviews I get, even if sometimes there aren't many. This chapter does contain Jackie and Hyde's date, although it may turn out not to be exactly what you expected. So, read and then tell me what you think!

---

"Donna, I don't want strange boys in my house at night!" Bob yelled, waking Hyde. "That couch is me and Midgey's special place, but those two ruined it!"

"First of all: _ew_! And second of all… ugh, _double_ ew!" Donna spat.

"Wha?" Hyde mumbled incoherently.

"I can't believe you and Jackie did it on my couch! In my _living room_!" Donna smacked Jackie, waking her up. "Jackie! What about the _banner_ and the _candles_?"

"Huh?" Jackie muttered.

"You and Hyde! On my _couch_!" Donna blustered.

"We just slept here, Donna, it's not a big deal," Jackie fixed Donna with the most vicious glare anyone in the room had ever seen. Hyde assumed that the intensity was due to the fact that Jackie's bitchiness was doubled when she was unceremoniously awakened from her beauty sleep.

"Yeah, right, like Hyde would break into my house so the two of you could 'just sleep,' " Donna snorted incredulously.

Hyde took offense to this. "Uh, hey, Big Red? How the hell would you know?"

"Come on, Hyde, I've known you for a while," Donna fixed a glare on him that looked pathetic next to Jackie's angry stare.

"Um, Donna, just because you lusted after him in the eighth grade doesn't mean you know him," Jackie sneered.

Donna reddened. "Will you _stop_ bringing that up?!"

"No," Jackie answered simply. Hyde smirked. The bubbly cheerleader had a growing tendency to really get under people's skin when need be, and it made him proud.

"I'll leave now," Bob announced feebly, sliding from the room. An audible growl came from his overlarge stomach, making it obvious that he was headed for the kitchen.

"Get out," Donna ordered in a low, fierce whisper.

"Come on, man, we didn't-" Hyde began, obviously unhappy with Donna's treatment of her 'best friend,' who happened to be _his_ girlfriend.

"No, Steven, it's fine. We can leave her here to sulk in peace," Jackie interrupted, glaring at Donna.

"Jackie…" Hyde began, then thought better of it. "Yeah, let's go." Once they were safely outside the Pinciottis' house, he voiced the opinion he'd been about to state inside. "You don't have to let her bitch at you all the time."

"She's… well, you know! So she's really moody…" Jackie trailed off, wondering why she was using this as an excuse for Donna's behavior when she herself had just told Donna a few days ago that it _wasn't_ a good excuse. "You know what? She can go to hell," Jackie decided, telling that to herself more than to Hyde.

"I don't know what Forman sees in her," Hyde said matter-of-factly.

"Me either," Jackie shrugged. "I don't really know what she sees in him, either. But at this point, I think Eric's more insane for wanting this bipolar pregnant bitch for a girlfriend than Donna is for wanting that insufferable geek."

"True," Hyde nodded.

"Anyways… last night was nice," Jackie smiled up at Hyde, who stiffened. He generally didn't do 'nice.' "Yeah, I know, you aren't nice," Jackie rolled her eyes at the impassive look on his face. "Or you try to avoid it, at the very least." Hyde nodded his agreement. Jackie rolled her eyes again. "That's bull, and we both know it. Come on, Steven, I know you. Remember that little heart-to-heart we had? Where I told you how I know you're more than just some jackass like Eric or Kelso? And how I know that as unbelievable as this may be, you actually do have emotions, and positive ones, at that?"

"Okay, okay," Hyde relented. "It was _nice_."

"Well, if you _didn't_ think it was nice, you should probably tell me," Jackie raised an eyebrow in a very Hyde-esque manner.

"Come on, Jacks, you're wrecking the memory," Hyde pointed out. "You know perfectly well what I'm thinking. You always do," he told her. "It's actually kind of creepy," he added as an afterthought.

"I do?" Jackie asked in surprise. "Then I suppose I'm a really good guesser. Here, think of something, and I'm going to try to figure out what you're thinking."

"Is this really-" Hyde began unenthusiastically. "Okay, whatever," he said, sounding weary. He started thinking of how hungry he was, and wondering where he was going to get breakfast now that his mother had gone, and taken the contents of the fridge with her.

"You're thinking about food, aren't you?" Jackie rolled her eyes.

"How'd you know that?" Hyde stared at her, paranoid that perhaps Kelso was right, and there _was_ such a thing as a 'super-hot mind-reading robot chick,' and those bureaucrat bastards in the government had planted one right here in Wisconsin…

"Because all you boys get that same idiotic caveman look on your face when you're hungry," Jackie said dismissively.

_Okay, so maybe she's not a super-hot mind-reading bureaucrat,_ Hyde thought, irritated that he had ever seriously considered the idea. "Oh. Right."

"Moron. What, did you think I was a robot or something?" Jackie snorted.

"No, I'm not _Kelso_," Hyde sneered.

"True," Jackie nodded. She glanced down at the dainty watch on her wrist. "Oh my god, it's already eleven! I have to go get ready!"

"For what?" Hyde stared at her in bemusement.

"Our _date_ tonight! Sometimes I think Kelso's stupidity is rubbing off on you," Jackie rolled her eyes.

"I thought I was picking you up at six!" Hyde's eyes widened. He needed all seven hours to try and find a pawnshop that would give him a good price for his mother's jewelry. If she changed her mind and wanted to do lunch… Well, he'd be screwed, and not in the sense of the word that he would prefer.

Jackie sighed in a very resigned manner. "Yes, Steven, you are picking me up at six o'clock," Jackie began, sounding like a kindergarten teacher who was speaking to a particularly slow student. "Which means that I have just a few hours to go out and buy some new clothes and jewelry, and then get ready."

"Oh, right," Hyde nodded. Jackie sighed again. "I'll see you at six," she said. She gave a small smile, stood on her tiptoes to give Hyde a soft kiss, and walked purposefully down the driveway.

---

"So where'd Hyde go last night?" Eric asked immediately, seeing Donna striding up the driveway for the first time in what seemed like days.

Donna's expression darkened. "The couch in my living room."

"They actually did it on your couch?" Eric raised an eyebrow. "I thought Miss Jackie Burkhart would insist on her first time being a bit classier."

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," Donna said, sounding sulky. Neither of them spoke for a moment.

"Look, Donna," Eric broke the silence tentatively. "The girls were a mistake. I thought that you were going off to the mall with Jackie to find some new guy, and that you were ditching me, just like you ditched me for Kelso at that party," Eric reminisced with more than a little bitterness in his voice. "And I didn't want to be left alone again, looking like some loser, alone while you were off with this new guy, and Hyde was with Jackie."

"What about Kelso or Fez?" Donna asked, avoiding the real topic.

"Uh, I don't want to watch them make out, or risk getting jumped myself," Eric pointed out, sounding disgusted. "But that's not the point. I mean, come on, Donna, if that girl and I had actually… you know, _done_ something… I would understand why you're so pissed. But we didn't even make out. Like, she tried to kiss me once, but I didn't let her. It just felt so…"

"Dirty? Scummy? Like you were a filthy jackass?" Donna suggested.

"Uh, I guess you could say all of the above," Eric shrugged. "But you're not perfect, either, okay? I mean, you're lashing out at _everyone_. I heard Jackie actually crying once because of something you said to her."

Donna looked stunned. "Jackie cried?"

"Yeah, she did." Eric paused, letting this sink in.

"I've only seen her cry once, and that was at that party where we first met, and Cat Peterson had totally chewed her out. I didn't think… I mean, it takes a lot…" Donna didn't bother completing her sentence.

"Yeah, it seems like it takes a lot to burst that girl's bubble. But you manage to more than every so often," Eric pointed out. "But you can talk about Jackie with Jackie. I need to know what's up with us."

"I don't know, Eric. I mean, I'm not just going to forgive you for the hookers!" Donna crossed her arms.

"But _why_, Donna? There's nothing for you to be pissed about! Nothing happened! And I mean _nothing_! Seriously, just get the hell over it!" Eric found himself yelling.

Donna was silent. "I didn't know you could yell," she attempted to joke.

"I can," Eric said seriously, rejecting her attempt to lighten the mood. "But I never do unless someone's really pissing me off."

"Am I really _that_ bad?" Donna demanded, suddenly in tears. "Am I really so horrible to all of you that you just all hate me? God, why don't you just _tell_ me, then, and I'll leave you all alone!"

"What? No. No, no, no. I never said that. I just mean, you really need to tone it down. Stop bitching at everyone so much. Because you really are pissing everyone off…" Eric stopped talking when he saw the dejected look on Donna's face, her eyes suddenly filled with tears. "No, come on, don't cry, okay?" he pleaded. "Come on, I know you're going through a lot, and I want to help. You know that. But you just keep pushing me away." At this, as if to prove him wrong, Donna flung herself at him, the tears now streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

---

"So, uh, where are we going?" Jackie asked a few hours later. Hyde had just pulled up in the Trans Am he had 'borrowed' from Kelso's older brother.

"Where do you want to go?" Hyde answered her question with another question, figuring that the best thing to do to keep a girl like Jackie happy would be to sit back and let her take control.

"How about… there's a new diner over on Oak Street?" Jackie suggested. It was obvious that she was trying to pick an inexpensive restaurant.

"Come on, Jackie, where do you _really_ want to go?" Hyde half-smiled knowingly.

Jackie beamed back. "Well, if you're up for it, there's a really great Italian restaurant downtown!"

"Your wish is my command," Hyde said, mentally reproaching himself for using such a corny line. Jackie giggled. "Shut up," he responded. She giggled more, and he found himself smiling at the stupidity of the situation.

"You know," Jackie began seriously, "if someone had told me six months ago that one of the guys who smokes pot on the playground at the elementary school was going to end up taking me out to a fancy restaurant, I probably would have slapped them for suggesting that I'd lower my standards that much."

"Uh…" Hyde said stupidly, wondering where she was going with this.

"But now… well, I can't really imagine that there's anyone else I'd rather be in this car with right now," Jackie finished.

Hyde half-smiled at Jackie's signature manner of making sure every compliment, no matter how genuine, was laced with insults. "Well, if anyone told _me_ six months ago that I would end up taking one of the spoiled, bitchy cheerleaders out to some overrated shit-hole restaurant, I probably would've kicked their ass for suggesting that I'd become that shallow."

"Touché," Jackie smirked. "So are you sure that the Italian place is… okay…?"

Hyde understood 'okay' to mean 'within an okay price range.' "Yeah, Jacks, it's fine."

"Well, it's only our first date, so you know, if you want me to-" Jackie said slowly.

Hyde's expression darkened. "I'm not going to let you pay for anything. I've got money, okay? Don't worry about it."

"Steven," Jackie said sharply, "are you planning on pulling some stupid dine-and-dash stunt that Michael suggested? Because if you are, then you should take me home right now and I'll have the maid cook us up something there. I am _not _going to be seen dining and dashing from Il Giardino Se-"

"Jackie. I've got it covered, okay?" Hyde assured her. She still looked uneasy. "Look, do you want to just go back to your place?"

The expression on her face softened. "Yeah, I think that would be nice. You know… more peaceful. It'll be just us, the maids' rooms are down in the basement, so it'll be like we're all alone." Jackie looked at Hyde meaningfully.

"Jackie… are you…?" He didn't finish his sentence. "You know what? Let's just go back to your place and we'll… see what happens."

Jackie responded with a half-smile. "Come on, Steven. You know exactly what you want to happen."

"What? Jackie, guys think about more than sex, you know," Hyde said defensively. "Okay, maybe Kelso doesn't. But I like to think I have a little more depth than _Kelso_."

"Ewww!" Jackie pulled a disgusted face. Hyde stared at her questioningly. "Kelso likes _Fez_. I don't want to hear how much Kelso thinks of having sex with _Fez_!" Hyde looked revolted. "See what I mean?!" Jackie pointed at the sickened look that had frozen on his face.

"Okay. Let's not talk about Kelso. Ever again," Hyde said tersely.

Jackie nodded her agreement. "How does that idiot manage to ruin the mood even when he's not around?"

---

"Hey Pam," Kelso said smoothly.

"Ew, get away from me, queer!" Pam Macy shrieked for everyone in The Hub to hear.

"W-what?" Kelso stammered.

"I heard _all_ about how you and that creepy foreign perv are _more_ than friends," Pam whispered icily. "I had _sex_ with you! Do you know how _embarrassing_ this is for me?"

"We had sex?" Kelso asked curiously. "I don't remem- I mean, oh, right, we had sex!" He changed direction mid-sentence at the simultaneously horrified and furious look on Pam's face.

"You two had _sex_?" Fez had appeared suddenly. "And you never told me. Bastard!" Fez stormed out as suddenly as he'd walked in.

"Fezzie, wait!" Kelso called, a detectable amount of affection could be heard in his voice. "Damn it! And I can't even _remember_ the thing that happened that got him so pissed!"

"We had sex," Pam reminded him flatly.

"Yeah, you _told _me. But I don't actually remember…" Kelso shut up when he noticed Pam glaring wrathfully at him.

"You are _not_ telling me that you don't even _remember_," she said, her voice dangerously soft.

"Uh, yeah, isn't that what I just said?" Kelso clarified in genuine confusion.

"I am _way_ too good for you not to remember! You said it was the best you'd ever had!" Pam had dropped her low whisper in favor of a furious shriek.

"Hey! He told _me_ that I gave him the best he'd ever had!" a blonde in the corner shouted.

"What the hell are you all talking about, I did it with him like five times, and he told _me_ that _I_ was the best!" a brunette chimed in.

"How many girls have you had sex with, anyways?!" a second brunette demanded. "You told me you were a _virgin_!"

"Oh my god, what if he gave me something?" a redhead shrieked.

"Uh, I have to be somewhere… right now. Oops, I'm late! Sorry girls, gotta run!" Kelso yelled over his shoulder as he made a break for the exit.

"GET HIM!" Pam screamed. A crowd of girls followed her, swarming after Kelso as he made a mad dash for his car.

"Where the hell's my car?!" Kelso yelled at anyone who would listen.

"Beige van?" a passerby asked.

"Yeah, where the hell is it?" Kelso demanded.

"Some foreign guy drove off with it," the passerby replied.

"DAMMIT, FEZ!" Kelso howled.

---

"So," Jackie said awkwardly, rolling over onto her side to blow out a candle.

"Yeah," Hyde stared at the ceiling.

"Shit," Jackie swore, abandoning her usual fairly articulate manner.

"That bad?" Hyde attempted to joke, though he was offended and actually a bit disappointed.

"No, it's just… what if something happens?" Jackie sighed.

"Like…?" Hyde prompted.

"I don't know. Like, I'm pregnant, like Donna. I don't want to turn into that! I'll be too fat to cheer, I'll be a moody bitch…" Jackie worried.

"Well, you're already-" Hyde began with a smirk.

"Shut up! I know I'm a bitch, but I _pride_ myself on it! This would just be like… regular pregnant-girl bitchiness, and that's not something to be proud of," Jackie explained.

"Come on, Jacks, that's not going to happen," Hyde placed his arm around her bare shoulders.

"Well, if it does… can you make me one promise?" She made eye contact with him, putting on her sweetest smile.

"Yeah. Sure," he responded warily.

"Just don't go running off with Fez, okay?" she grinned up at him.

---

Okay, I know, a bit disappointing. I completely avoided the smut. I can't write smut at ALL. I tried to write it for this chapter, but I wasn't satisfied at all with how it turned out, so I just took it out. That resulted in taking out quite a chunk of the rest of the chapter that didn't quite work without the smut bit, so... Just thought I'd explain that.


	18. Chapter 18

Sorry for taking, like, a month to update. School's started, and I've been so busy, I've barely touched a computer in the past few weeks except for schoolwork. So this chapter was obviously very much delayed, but hopefully you'll like it well enough. :)

---

Hyde strode into the Formans' kitchen, looking preoccupied. "Hey, Mrs. Forman, have you seen Jackie?" A few months had passed since Jackie and Hyde's date, and things had changed. Jackie had been on cloud nine for a few days after the big night, but once she and Hyde were alone together again, she began to withdraw, putting more and more distance between them with the passing days. She was beginning to act odder and odder, and every time she was out of Hyde's sight he began to worry about where she was, what she was doing, whether or not she was all right.

"What do _you_ want, creep?" Laurie greeted Hyde. Stuck deep in thought, he hadn't realized that the female occupying the room was not Eric's mother, but his sister, who Hyde had always regarded as something of an incredibly hot female Satan. Laurie continued to glare at him. "The homeless shelter is on the _other_ side of town," she added in a mock-helpful voice.

"Have you seen Jackie? Kinda midgety, high-pitched squeal of a voice, brown hair?" Hyde described Jackie to Laurie, even though he doubted that she would be much help.

"Um, like I'd bother remembering," Laurie rolled her eyes and turned back to the drink she'd been pouring.

Hyde groaned in frustration. "Where's your mom?"

"At the hospital, duh," Laurie rolled her eyes again.

"Where's Forman? Uh, Eric," Hyde demanded.

"With her," Laurie raised an eyebrow, as though surprised that Hyde didn't know this already.

"What, is it Career Day or something?" Hyde racked his brain, trying to remember if anyone had told him what was going on today.

Laurie looked delighted at Hyde's ignorance. "No, moron. Donna's having her kid."

---

Jackie sat primly on the edge of the plastic chair she'd been provided with. She stared around at her surroundings. Cheap framed prints of low-quality artwork hung on the plain white walls. One of the fluorescent lights buzzed. A large man stretched out on the brown couch, the only semi-comfortable looking piece of furniture in the waiting room. Then there was Eric, who had fallen asleep and whose head had landed on Jackie's shoulder. Jackie thought of the brief period when this contact with Eric would have made her day.

Maybe Jackie would have been better off if she'd ended up winning Eric. He'd stood by Donna, even through her pregnancy and her horrid mood swings. But Hyde had slowly turned back into his old hardened self after the night when he and Jackie had proven their love to each other. Jackie sighed in frustration, as she had many times while contemplating where she and Hyde stood. They had done something that was supposed to bring them closer together, but they were growing further and further apart. Jackie hadn't been alone in the basement with Hyde in weeks, let alone gone on another date.

Mrs. Forman walked into the room, approaching Jackie and the snoring, unmoving form that was Eric. She wore a tired smile on her face as she approached them, and Jackie shook Eric to wake him up.

"Han? Did you _see_ that?! I totally kicked Darth Vader's ass!" Eric sat up immediately after Jackie had hit him with one of her patented kicks in the shin. "I think his light saber caught my shin, but…" Eric's eyes widened as he took in his surroundings. "Oh," he said, sounding slightly crestfallen.

"Time to come back to earth, honey," Kitty said kindly. "You can go in and see Donna now."

Eric stood so quickly he knocked over his plastic chair. He turned back to pick it up. Jackie stopped him. "I'll take care of it. You go see Donna."

Eric stared at her in disbelief. Jackie Burkhart offering to do something for someone else, with no obvious benefit on her part? _I never thought I'd see the day,_ Eric thought to himself. "Thanks, Yoko," he said finally, unable to resist the urge to slip in a reference to her obvious evil streak.

Jackie glared at his retreating form and kicked the chair she'd just picked up back over onto the floor.

"What crawled up your ass and died?"

Jackie froze. She would have known that voice anywhere. But why was she hearing it here, in the waiting room at the Point Place Hospital's maternity ward? She slowly turned to look at him. He had already strolled up to her. Since the only chair next to her had been kicked over, he stood, leaning up against the wall.

"Hello, Jackie, anyone home?" He raised an eyebrow at the wide-eyed look on her face, her mouth having fallen slightly open.

"Uh, hi," she said finally. "What are you doing here?" she blurted.

"Laurie said you, Forman, and Donna were all over here. Figured this was where the party was at," he shrugged.

"You don't belong here," Jackie countered. "Eric's her boyfriend, and I'm her best friend, but-"

"And I'm her friend, her boyfriend's best friend, and her best friend's boyfriend or whatever," he interrupted.

"Steven, I think at this point that you'd fall under the 'or whatever' category," Jackie heard herself saying. Hyde said nothing; he was silently thanking God – if he really existed – that he'd worn his sunglasses. Allowing Jackie to see the hurt that her statement had caused him wouldn't have been good at all; even though Hyde knew how easily Jackie always saw through his hard façade, he still tried his hardest to maintain the charade. Jackie used his silence as a cue to contiune. "I mean, come on, Steven. We haven't even been alone together in months, and we definitely haven't gone out or done anything that would show that we're together. You act like you don't give a damn about…" Jackie stopped when she noticed that the large man who had been sleeping on the couch had awakened and was checking her out. "I can't do this here."

Hyde made another silent expression of gratitude to whatever god there might be that Jackie was suggesting they leave. If he'd had to watch the fat-ass on the couch ogle Jackie much longer, there may well have been a new reason for the chubby pervert to be at the hospital. "Want to go to breakfast?" he suggested, glaring at the guy on the couch, who stared right back.

Jackie sighed and contemplated the idea. Then she noticed Hyde pounding his fist into his palm. "Steven, what's your problem?" She followed his line of vision. "Oh, god. Sure, breakfast sounds great, _lover_," she said. Hyde knew she'd only thrown in the last word for the benefit of the fat guy, but it reassured him nonetheless.

---

"Hey Kelso," Laurie said suddenly, a mischievous smirk on her face. She'd snuck up behind Kelso, whose upper torso was deep in the refrigerator, searching for mayonnaise. He bumped his head on the shelf, sending pickles, jam, beer, and a mysterious uncovered dish of unidentifiable, slightly moldy food flying out onto the floor. The contents of the dish splattered all over the kitchen and its occupants. "Kelso!" Laurie screeched. "This shirt was _new_!"

"Sorry! I…" Kelso had turned and caught sight of Laurie, who was stripping off the stained shirt. "Uh, I like that one better," he said, pointing at her lacy bra.

"Really?" Laurie's smirk was back on her face. "I don't know… it's kind of uncomfortable. Maybe I should take it off…?" she suggested naughtily.

"Well, you know, if it's uncomfortable, who am I to tell you to leave it on?" Kelso responded happily. Laurie's interest in him was a pleasant change from the mob of girls that had been so intent on killing him for months.

"Maybe you should put me out of my misery," Laurie moved towards him slowly.

Kelso backed away. "Whoa, Laurie, I don't want to kill you, I think you get sent to jail or something for that!"

Laurie rolled her eyes. "No, moron. I mean… Ugh, never mind, just take my goddamn bra off already!" she commanded.

"All right!" Kelso cheered. Unfortunately, they'd forgotten one important detail. The sliding glass door made their little scene completely visible.

"Eric! Your little foreign friend was reading dirty magazines in the back seat of _my_ car!" Red stormed into the kitchen, dragging Fez behind him. "Kelso, where's…" Red fell silent when he saw who was with Kelso, and how scantily clad that person happened to be.

"Hi, Daddy," Laurie said in a small voice, her eyes wide.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Then, all hell broke loose.

"You _bitch_!" Fez wailed, slapping Kelso across the face. "And you! Kelso's _mine_, you dirty whore!" Fez made a move towards Laurie, only to be stopped by Red, who appeared to be too angry to speak.

"I think this is bad," Kelso whispered loudly to Laurie.

"Damn straight!" Red roared. He grabbed a handful of Kelso's carefully styled hair and dragged him out the door, throwing him down onto the driveway. "Didn't I tell you I didn't want you in my house anymore?!" Red yelled.

Kelso whimpered with pain. "You… you messed up my hair!" he howled, patting at his head as he darted away down the driveway.

"I can mess up more than your hair if I see you back here again!" Red bellowed at Kelso's retreating form. "I've killed more than a few men, remember that!" Kelso sped up and tripped over his own feet, causing Red to laugh unpleasantly.

"Daddy?" Laurie approached her father once the driveway was Kelso-free. Red turned and stared at her. "Can I have twenty dollars?"

---

"Oh, god," Eric groaned, staring at the tiny face that was poking out of the bundle Donna held in her arms.

"What?" Donna stared at him warily, daring him to criticize her baby. Maybe she hadn't wanted it, and maybe she hated the guts of the man who had fathered it, but in the short amount of time that she'd known the infant, it had grown on her.

"She looks like her daddy," Eric rolled his eyes.

Donna scrutinized the baby. "Oh, god. She really does. But she definitely has my hair."

"So… we never really talked about, you know, how this is going to work," Eric said suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Donna asked, studying Eric.

"Like… Kelso. Is he going to, you know… help raise her or whatever?" Eric asked carefully.

"I don't want him to," Donna said simply. "I mean, I think I'm just going to sort of, you know, do my own thing. He'd probably just drop her on her head, and then we'd be stuck with an itty-bitty female Kelso." Donna wrinkled her nose in a manner very reminiscent of Jackie at the thought.

Eric nodded. "So… she'll just, like, grow up without a dad?"

Donna sighed. "Eric. If you're trying to say something, just say it," she said with a faintly amused smile.

Eric rolled his eyes. "Well, I don't know. I mean, if we break up or something…"

"True. Yeah, I don't want her to go through that," Donna nodded. "I guess… I guess I'll just sort of do it myself."

"But if you need help, I mean, I'm always here," Eric reminded her.

Donna's smile was more visible this time. "Trust me, Eric, I've known that for a long time."

---

"Jackie, how can you say that _I'm_ shutting you out?" Hyde demanded.

"Steven, don't talk so loud! I don't want to announce this to the world!" Jackie whispered angrily. Hyde looked around at the two other people in the cheesy little diner Jackie had wanted to go to and used a superhuman effort not to make a sarcastic comment about how very sorry he was. "And how can _you_ say that _I'm_ shutting _you_ out?

"Because you're always acting weird, like you're not, ya know, all there," Hyde pointed out.

"I do _not_ act weird!" Jackie said defensively. "But _you_ do. Remember how we had that talk a while ago about how I don't give a damn about your screwed up life and that I see right through the stupid front you put on?"

"Jackie, come on," Hyde said, exasperated. "If you can see right through it, why does it matter if I'm putting it on or not, or whatever the hell it was that you said?"

"Because it's not _fair_ for me to have to deal with you!" Jackie informed him, forgetting her hushed voice. "I'm sick of trying to get you to open up to me! I'm done trying to convince you that I can see the person you're trying to cover up, and that I love you more when you're just that guy, and not some fake Zen idiot. I'm not going to keep making an effort to make this work if you're not going to help me out a little."

"First of all? I'm not _fake_. Second of all? I'm not 'that guy.' I can't be 'that guy,' and I'm done dealing with you trying to turn me into some queer girly-man like Forman or Fez," Hyde spoke calmly, even though his insides were boiling in a combination of anger, an insulted feeling, and – though he wouldn't admit it under torture – fear. Jackie was bitching about how she was sick of him, and he wasn't about to grovel. This wouldn't exactly help matters with Jackie.

Jackie stared at him, trying to make eye contact, but his glasses made it impossible. This seemed to frustrate her more. "Well, Steven, if you're done, and I'm done…"

Hyde stared back at her. "Jackie…" he began, then stopped. If this was what she wanted, if she wanted to give him a hard time, she could go to hell.

"What, Steven?" Jackie had a pleading look in her eyes, begging him to contradict her.

Hyde was silent. Neither of them wanted this. But neither of them was going to break.

"Steven, I'm leaving this up to you, all right?" Jackie said. "It's your choice, all right? I'll be in the car." She picked up her coat and walked quickly out of the diner.

"Fuck," Hyde muttered to his untouched cup of coffee.

"Now, now, there's no need for language like that," a waitress scolded as she passed by his table.

Hyde glared at her. "Fuck," he repeated.

---

Reviews are much appreciated.


	19. Chapter 19

Gah. Sorry I'm taking so long to update. I'm super busy lately, but I'm doing my best to write in my spare time. So, try to be patient. :P And make sure you review, so that I know there's a reason to spend my precious spare time working on updates!

---

Jackie saw Hyde approaching the car with his hands shoved in his pockets and his glasses firmly in place. "He's going to end it," she whispered to herself. "Oh, my god, why did I leave this up to him?" she whispered frantically.

Hyde opened the car door and slid in. "Jackie…" he took a deep breath. "You're right."

"Steven, look, when I said you-" Jackie stopped talking when she realized what he had said. "Wait. I'm right? I mean, I know I'm right! Oh, Steven, I'm so glad you-"

"Yeah. You're right, you shouldn't have to deal with me. I'm not the guy you're looking for," Hyde interrupted. "And I could tell that you really meant that when you said it. So, you know what? How about I just give you a ride home and then we can be done dealing with each other?" He started the car.

"No, Steven…" Jackie began to protest, then decided against it. If this was what he wanted, he could have it his way. "I mean, I need to go back to the hospital. To see Donna and the baby."

Hyde nodded curtly and pulled out of the parking lot. From that moment until the moment when Jackie had been safely deposited at the hospital, neither said a word.

As soon as Hyde was a good five blocks from the hospital, though, he smacked his fist against the car's dashboard. Hyde wasn't one to use words to express his feelings, but sometimes even the protective barrier of his trademark glasses wasn't enough to hide his physical expressions.

---

Jackie headed back to that dreadful waiting room in the maternity ward with a slumped, defeated posture. _I can't do this to Donna_, she thought. _This is supposed to be a happy day for her. She's got a child. I can't ruin it for her and Eric._ Jackie sighed and turned around, fighting the tears that were filling her eyes as she realized that there was no one left to turn to. Steven had crushed her. Her parents were thousands of miles away in god only knows where. Eric and Donna were celebrating something amazing, and Jackie wasn't going to let this stupidity ruin anything for them. There was nowhere to go, and no one to turn to. Jackie leaned against a wall, then slid down to sit on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest and choking back tears. She was a Burkhart, and Burkharts didn't cry in public.

"Jackie?" a familiar maternal voice said tentatively. Jackie looked up to see Mrs. Forman looking down at her, seeming concerned. "What are you doing down there? Donna's been wondering where you are."

Jackie sighed. "I, um, don't really want to go in right now," she said, not offering any details.

"Jackie, dear, I spend too much time around you kids not to know when something's wrong," Mrs. Forman smiled knowingly down at her. "Come on, up. Go in and see Donna, she wants you to meet the baby!"

"Mrs. Forman, that's really not a good idea right now," Jackie insisted.

"Come on, what can it hurt?" Kitty encouraged.

"I'm not going in there, okay? I'm going home!" Jackie dashed away before the tears came, leaving a confused and concerned Kitty behind.

---

"Donna, I don't think Jackie's going to be coming to see you today," Kitty told Donna regretfully.

"What? Why?" Donna demanded. "She's got to see… um, my currently nameless baby."

"You still haven't decided on a name?" Kitty inquired.

"I vote Erica," Eric raised his hand.

Donna rolled her eyes but grinned at him. "He's been saying that for the past forty-five minutes. Personally, I like Erin."

Eric contemplated this, then had a revelation. "That's only one letter away from Eric! I like it," he nodded.

Donna rolled her eyes and smiled at him again. "But I also kind of like Misty… or Cynthia…"

"Cynthia Pinciotti? Misty Pinciotti?" Eric burst out laughing, then got serious again. "Seriously. I vote for either Erin or Erica."

"I need to _think_ about it, Eric, I mean, this name is going to stick with her forever. I don't want her to have some embarrassing name, like for instance, Jackie _Beulah_ Burkhart," Donna snorted with laughter at her friend's unfortunate middle name.

"All right, well, you two have fun," Mrs. Forman said as she made to exit the room.

"Wait, Mrs. Forman. Why isn't Jackie coming?" Donna asked again.

"Actually, she didn't really say. She seemed very upset, though, I found her sitting in a hallway in oncology. She looked like she was about to cry. She usually doesn't get upset easily, though, does she? I'm sorry I can't tell you much more than that, but I have to go finish my rounds," Kitty said, sounding suddenly rushed, before hurrying from the room.

Eric and Donna exchanged worried glances. "It's got to have something to do with Hyde," Donna said, sounding troubled. "Eric, you need to go find Hyde and see what happened."

"What? No, I have to stay here and keep you company," Eric said. He genuinely cared about his girlfriend and making sure she wasn't lonely, but he also didn't fancy the task of trying to extract information from Hyde about an apparently emotional subject.

Donna saw through this. "Eric, we need to know what's going on. I'm worried about Jackie, she never lets herself break down in public."

Eric sighed. "Donna, can't you, like, call her or something?" Donna glared at him, giving him his answer. "Okay, okay," he relented. "Fine. I'll see what I can do, and I'll let you know. But I'm warning you, this is _Hyde_ we're talking about. I don't know if I'll find anything out."

"I'll try to get a hold of Jackie while you're at it," Donna called after Eric, who had put on his jacket and was out the door.

---

Hyde was laying on the beat-up couch in the basement, staring at the ceiling. A pyramid of empty beer cans on the coffee table completed the picture of the stereotypical loser burnout that he had come to see himself as over the course of the day's events.

"Hey, what's…" Eric shut up when he saw the pyramid of beer cans and the empty paper bag on the table. "So, you and Jackie."

"She can go to hell, man," Hyde said, his voice slurred.

Eric's face went from inquisitive and empathetic to hardened and irritable. "Again, man? Don't you get it? I mean, you all talked about how much of a moron I was when I didn't see that Donna liked me. Can you not see that Jackie loves you? I mean…" Eric paused and waved his hands around in what appeared to be some kind of sign language currently unknown to mankind. "_Moron_!"

Hyde sat up and glared at Eric. "Don't talk so damn loud."

"Oh, sorry," Eric said sympathetically. He stepped closer to Hyde and leaned towards him, cupping his hands around his mouth. "MORON!"

Hyde wound up and threw a punch. Luckily for Eric, intoxication didn't do much for Hyde's aim, so Eric was able to dodge it. "Hyde, what the _hell_?" Eric yelped.

"Get out." Hyde sank back into the couch and pointed lazily at the door.

Eric glared at him. "This is my house."

Hyde glared back, then wordlessly stood and stumbled unsteadily from the basement.

"Hyde, man, I didn't tell you to… Come on, what…? Donna's going to kill me if I don't come back with very detailed information about what happened with you and Jackie!" Eric yelled after him. The only answer he received was the sound of Hyde's retreating footsteps. "Damn it," Eric muttered, sinking into the couch where Hyde had just been sitting. "She really is going to kill me," he griped.

Eric sat for a few minutes, staring at the TV, which was tuned to the news, a testament to Hyde's intoxication. The Hyde that Eric knew would never waste his time paying attention to the news, unless the station had hired a particularly hot new weather girl. Then Eric noticed that the paper bag, which had appeared at first glance to be empty, was in reality still filled with a decent amount of… caramels.

"If Red finds this, he'll kill me," Eric muttered. Then he shrugged. "May as well destroy the evidence."

---

"Jackie, _finally_! Why haven't you been answering the phone? Where were you? Why didn't you come to see me?" Donna demanded as soon as she heard Jackie answer the phone.

"I didn't feel like it. I've been at home," Jackie answered in an uncharacteristic monotone. Donna could hear a Led Zeppelin album playing in the background.

"Jackie. I can hear Stairway to Heaven playing in the background…" Donna began.

"It's the only Led Zep-uh-whatever song I like even a little bit," Jackie said. Donna was sure her friend had just rolled her eyes.

"Then why are you listening to their album?" Donna asked, fairly confident that she knew the answer to her question.

"Because Ste…" Jackie fell silent. "Because you and Eric like them, and I want to know what you're talking about when you mention them."

Donna normally would have rolled her eyes at this pathetic excuse, but her friend was obviously not at her best. "So you went out and paid for one of their records? When you could've gotten some Abba or Peter Frampton crap… um, I mean, thing?"

"Yes, Donna, why is that…" Jackie fell silent again. "You aren't buying any of this," she said matter-of-factly.

"Not really," Donna admitted. "I think I kind of get the point, though."

"Steven dumped me," Jackie said, her voice losing its steadiness. "And he made it seem like it was my fault."

"Was it?" Donna blurted.

"No!" Jackie snapped. "I mean… I told him it was all up to him. And I had told him that I was sick of him pretending to be something he wasn't, and that it wasn't fair for me to keep trying to fix things. And then when he… you know… he said that I was right, that it _wasn't_ fair for me, so he would just let me be done dealing with him. But he said it in that stupid, sarcastic way that he always uses when he doesn't really give a damn about what he's talking about!" Jackie was suddenly more angry than depressed.

Donna felt a surge of anger. "That bastard. Why does he have to be such an ass about everything?!" Although she was angry in defense of her friend, a small, nagging part of Donna reminded her of something she'd said to Jackie a few months earlier. "Jackie… remember what I said a while ago? About how maybe Hyde wasn't who you thought he was?"

"But he _is_, Donna! Just… god, I don't know. I just _know_ he is, he's just being stubborn. He's so used to being this hardass," Jackie explained sadly.

"Jackie…" Donna began, but then decided not to argue with her friend. She was exhausted, and Jackie surely wasn't up to it. "I'm really sorry."

"For what? None of this is _your_ fault," Jackie said forlornly.

"Well, I'm sorry it happened to you. And I'm sorry I've been such a bitch these past few months," Donna said genuinely.

"Yeah…" Jackie sighed. "Bye, Donna."

"Jackie, wait-" Donna insisted, but the sudden click she heard indicated that Jackie had already hung up.

"Hyde's drunk off his ass," Eric reported, entering Donna's bland hospital room.

"Great," Donna grumbled. Then something dawned on her. "No, that _is_ great! How wasted was he?"

"Extremely," Eric rolled his eyes, remembering their less-than-pleasant encounter.

"He doesn't get _really_ wasted unless he's really, like, upset about something," Donna realized. "Which means that no matter what he says to us, he really _is_ upset about breaking up with Jackie."

"Yeah, and?" Eric prompted, not seeing how this information would help, unless Donna had concocted a plan to outsmart the two of them and get them to see how they felt – at least, how they felt according to Donna.

"So, it's our duty as their friends to get them back together," Donna concluded.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but I don't think they're interested," Eric reminded her.

Donna sighed in exasperation. "Haven't you been listening? All the signs are there. Hyde's drunk off his ass. Jackie's sitting at home listening to Led Zeppelin. I mean-"

"Wait, wait. Back up. Jackie's listening to _Led Zeppelin_?" Eric snickered. "That's hilarious." Donna glared at him. "All right, all right, not helping. So what's your plan?" Eric sighed.

"Um…" Donna stalled. "Good question." Eric rolled his eyes, as if to say 'typical.' "But I'll come up with something, and it'll be good. You just wait," Donna added hastily.

---

Reviews are love. :)


	20. Chapter 20

Thanks to those of you who do take the time to review, it really does help motivate me to write this. :)

I'm thinking I'm going to finish this up in a couple of chapters. I mean, Donna's had her baby, and I've been planning ever since I put the pregnancy into the story to be done a few chapters after the baby is born. So, I just have to clear up some last few things and tie it all together nicely, so we should be on the home stretch. I'm debating about doing a sequel that takes place maybe twenty or thirty years after this one, following up on what happens in the end of this. But I think that would be a bit overkill, so I'm still not really into that idea.

Just thought I'd give a bit of an update on that. :) Anyways, hopefully you'll like this chapter, and don't forget to review and let me know.

---

Donna burst through Jackie's bedroom door. "Jackie. Turn off the Zeppelin, you're coming to my house and we're going to watch TV and read Cosmo and eat comfort food. Okay?" After a few weeks, Donna had had enough of Jackie's moodiness. It was time to fix this, and quick. So Donna had enlisted her mother and Mrs. Forman to watch Erin – Eric had been quite pleased with the baby's name – and she was prepared to drag Jackie back to her house kicking and screaming.

"Donna! Door! _Knock!_" Jackie screeched, shoving something – or possibly someone – off the bed. Donna heard a _thunk_ and "Ai!" when it hit the ground.

"Jackie, do you have _Fez_ in here?" Donna looked horrified.

"No!" Jackie said unconvincingly.

"Ai, Jackie, I hit my head!" a voice moaned in pain. Fez stood shakily, clutching his head. "Oh, hello, Donna!"

Jackie smacked him. "Moron!"

"You have got to be kidding me," Donna stared at the pair of them. "Jackie, you don't even like him!"

"So?" Jackie blurted. "I mean, I do too! He's a great kisser. You know that thing he does with his R's? Well, he does that in my _mouth_!" Jackie raised her eyebrow, as if to say "top_ that!_"

"So, he's a better kisser than Hyde?" Donna challenged.

"I didn't say _that_," Jackie visibly deflated instantly.

"Bitch," Fez muttered.

"What?" Jackie demanded.

"Bitch!" Fez repeated more loudly. "You told me I was a much better kisser than Hyde!"

"Fez, you know, there's this thing I do sometimes where I don't tell the truth," Jackie said, living up to the title of 'bitch' that Fez had granted her a few seconds earlier.

Fez glared at her. "Good day, _bitch_."

Jackie sighed impatiently. "Fez-"

Fez turned to face her and held up one hand. "I said good day!" He strode from the room, presumably to go find Kelso.

"Jackie, why were you… why did you… Jackie, _why_?" Donna stared at her friend.

Jackie shrugged. "Something to do."

"Come on, come to my house. I'll paint your toenails!" Donna offered, knowing that normally, this was an offer Jackie couldn't resist.

"That sounds _so_ fun! Except… not," Jackie responded coolly.

"What is _wrong_ with you?" Donna looked at her friend as if she'd just been beamed down from outer space. Jackie's worn jeans and plain t-shirt combined to make an outfit that she normally wouldn't be caught dead in, yet they looked vaguely familiar to Donna.

"Painting each other's toenails, Donna?" Jackie said incredulously. "That's so stupid." The look on Jackie's face had its normal haughty characteristics, but combined with a touch of withering disgust, it formed an expression very reminiscent of Jackie's ex-boyfriend.

Donna realized why her friend's odd behaviors were still familiar. They were extremely characteristic of Hyde. She swung her arms back and forth awkwardly. Finally, she clapped her hands together. "Okay. Fine. Maybe tomorrow we can go to the mall," Donna suggested. At the look on Jackie's face, though, she changed her suggestion. "…Or to the homecoming game to make fun of people who actually participate in extracurriculars?"

---

"Hyde, you need to talk to Jackie," Donna commanded as soon as she entered the basement.

Hyde simply snorted at the prospect.

"I'm being serious, you dillhole! Without you around, she's starting to act like you herself. And it's _really_ creepy and weird," Donna informed him.

"So I'm creepy and weird?" Hyde raised an eyebrow.

"Great plan, Donna," Eric said sarcastically.

"What are you morons planning that involves me?" Hyde demanded.

"Nice one, Eric," Donna said, just as sarcastic as Eric had been. "And we're not planning anything. I'm just worried about Jackie, and you need to go see her! You're the only one who can fix this, okay? I offered to paint her toenails and she gave me…" Donna scrutinized Hyde's unreceptive face. "Actually, she gave me the exact look that's on your face right now. Hyde, she's spent the last month sitting in her room wearing grungy jeans and t-shirts and listening to Zeppelin!"

Hyde had been fully prepared to let Donna know exactly how much he didn't care until he heard that last comment. The fact that Jackie was sitting around listening to Zeppelin intrigued him. He didn't care that she was less of a fashion plate than usual; in his opinion, that was a change for the better. But Jackie, listening to Led Zeppelin? That was not only a worryingly different change from her usual Abba… it was also a bit of a turn-on. "She's sitting around listening to Zeppelin?" Hyde clarified.

Donna looked relieved that she had captured his attention. "Yes! And I could have sworn I heard Judas Priest in the background when I called her the other day. It's _creepy_."

"Judas Priest aren't creepy, they're the metal gods," Hyde said, sounding almost as though he worshipped them, even though everyone in the room knew full well that Hyde didn't worship anyone, except possibly Clapton. Donna glared at him in retaliation to his off-subject response. "Okay, whatever. I'll see what I can do."

"Oh, my god, _thank_ you! She's really scaring me, you know, she's just-" Donna began spouting off in relief.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Hyde interrupted. "I'm gonna go talk to her. Forman, give me your keys." He held out a hand to Eric.

"What? But man, since Jackie and Donna aren't hanging out, and our moms are taking care of the baby, I was hoping Donna and I could, like, go out or something," Eric glanced at Donna eagerly. The two of them had been far too busy to go out in the past few months, and Eric wanted to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.

"Eric." Donna locked eyes with her boyfriend. This hadn't really been planned at all, but it was appearing to work so far, and Donna was _not_ going to allow Eric to ruin it, even if it meant sacrificing their potential date.

Eric sighed. "Fine," he said reluctantly, tossing the keys to Hyde.

---

"What the hell are _you_ doing here?" Hyde demanded when he saw Fez about to ring Jackie's doorbell.

"Jackie and I had a fight, and I am here to apologize," Fez informed him.

Hyde glared at the foreign boy. "You and Jackie had a fight? About what?"

"About how she told me that I was a better kisser than you," Fez paused to savor the satisfaction of seeing the furious and slightly humiliated look on Hyde's face at this statement before pressing on to reveal Jackie's true feelings, "but then told Donna that I wasn't as good of a kisser."

Hyde pushed Fez aside. "I need to talk to Jackie. Get out of here."

"You do not need to talk to Jackie." Fez stood his ground. "Jackie is better off without you. She does not want to talk to you, and after hearing about the things you have said to her, I cannot blame her, you bastard!"

Hyde was split between fury and amusement at Fez's passion. In the end, he chose to act on the fury. "Get the hell out of here. Now."

"No," Fez said simply. Hyde swung at him, expecting to land one good punch that would scare him away. Fez dodged it with an unexpected nimbleness, yelled what was presumably a war cry from his native country, and attempted a roundhouse kick.

Hyde managed to catch and hang on to Fez's leg. "I told you to get the hell out of here!" he yelled, dropping the leg and landing a punch full on Fez's face.

"What the _hell_ is going on out here?!" Jackie had run outside in an oversize t-shirt and panties, her wet hair hanging limp around her face.

"I came to apologize! For what happened earlier!" Fez panted.

"We need to talk," Hyde said simply, instantly resuming his Zen and making sure that it wasn't audible in his voice that he'd actually had to expend some effort holding off the supposedly wimpy foreign exchange student.

Jackie stared at both of them. "So you were fighting… over _me_?" Her face lit up, her irritated expression disappearing.

"Jackie, kick him to the curb, he hurt you!" Fez glared at Hyde and pinched his bleeding nose.

"Damn it, Hyde, he's bleeding all over the place!" Jackie said, exasperated, and rushed inside. She emerged seconds later with a wet towel, which she'd probably just been using to dry her hair, and flung it at Fez.

"Send him away, Jackie!" Fez said, his voice muffled through the towel with which he was covering his nose.

"No, Fez. I'm going to talk to him," Jackie said, her voice lacking emotion.

"But my goddess-" Fez began.

"No, Fez! God, you're both idiots! So I'm going to pick the idiot I actually care about," Jackie said, and instantly clapped an unmanicured hand over her mouth; she'd intended that last sentence to remain safely within the confines of her own mind.

Hyde smirked triumphantly at Fez, who looked heartbroken. Jackie noticed the look on Hyde's face. "Hyde, just because I'm going to let you tell me whatever the hell it is you need to tell me doesn't mean I'm ever going to like you ever again."

Being referred to as anything but Steven by Jackie threw Hyde off completely, so instead of responding, he simply followed her inside in silence, leaving Fez and his nosebleed outside.

---

"So, Donna, heard you had a kid," Kelso nodded. "Who's the lucky daddy?"

"You, moron," Donna reminded him, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot," Kelso said. "Hey, did anyone give you Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots as a gift at the baby shower thingy? Cause if anyone did, I _totally_ call them."

"You dillhole, you haven't even seen your own daughter yet and all you care about is if anyone gave her Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots?" Donna demanded incredulously.

Kelso stared at her for a moment. "Well, yeah," he nodded finally.

Eric stood up and walked towards the freezer, smacking Kelso upside the head on his way. "What was that for?" Kelso yelped.

"Kelso, you're still the king," Eric and Donna said simultaneously.

---

Jackie sat down on her bed. "So what do you want?" she asked in a tired, businesslike manner.

Hyde was fully prepared to simply tell her never mind and get up and leave. But seeing Jackie up close and really listening to the sound of her voice made him change his mind. Her face was sunken, she had dark circles under her eyes, her usually immaculate eyebrows were untidy, her hair had split ends, her voice sounded exhausted and was without its usual annoying perkiness… the list of things that were obviously wrong went on forever. Hyde wanted nothing less than to be the one to voice his feelings yet again, but it was unfair to let Jackie continue existing like some lifeless shell. Rumor had it she'd even quit the cheerleading squad. If it were anyone else, Hyde would have written him or her off as an overemotional moron. But for some reason, he couldn't allow himself to do that with Jackie.

He took a deep breath. "Jackie, I thought we'd both be better off if we didn't have to deal with each other."

"And we are," Jackie interrupted.

Hyde stared at her. He had been expecting her to encourage this potential emotional openness, not reject it. He pressed on as though nothing had happened. "No, we're not. Look at you, Jackie. You're a different person. And I know that a month ago I would have said that this kind of change would have been for the better, but… Come on, Jackie, you turned down Donna's plans to paint each others' toenails so you could sit in your room and listen to fucking Judas Priest!"

"You love Judas Priest," Jackie countered.

"Yeah, but you don't," Hyde pointed out. "You love Abba and all that other disco shit." Hyde went through a stack of records that was sitting by Jackie's bed and pulled out an Abba album. Fully aware that he was completely abandoning his principles, he put the record on and played it. "You love this. So you listen to this, and I'll take this-" he held up the Judas Priest record "-because I'm not in the mood to shoplift this weekend, and I don't have this album yet."

Hyde glanced up to see Jackie mouthing the words to Fernando. He raised an eyebrow. She offered a small smile, then stood abruptly, tossing a stuffed unicorn aside. "Dance with me!"

"Jackie, I already had some stupid heart-to-heart with you and played this album from hell. I'm not dancing to it." Hyde crossed his arms and stood his ground. Jackie pouted at him, that same pout that had convinced Hyde to get up and change the channel for her all those months ago. "Fuck. All right," he relented, taking her hand. "I can't dance," he warned her.

She smiled at him. "It doesn't matter." They stood there in her room, Hyde dancing as best as he knew how and Jackie following his lead. "Steven, remember how you told me you weren't the guy I thought you were?" Jackie asked.

"Yeah," Hyde said warily, not wanting to get into a conversation about the stupid things he'd said while he'd known Jackie.

"You lied," she accused softly. Hyde opened his mouth to deny this, but Jackie wasn't done. "If you weren't that guy, you wouldn't have come over here. You wouldn't have beat up Fez. And you definitely wouldn't have let me convince you to dance with me to Abba."

Hyde locked eyes with her. He'd left his sunglasses in the Vista Cruiser, figuring that if he was going to have to talk to Jackie, he should be completely open. Now she was able to see that he knew perfectly well that he was guilty as charged. "Yeah, you're right," he said finally.

"I'm glad you did," Jackie offered.

Hyde answered by saying something Jackie had heard rarely in her sixteen years, but something she'd wanted to hear from him for a long time. "I love you, Jackie."

Her face lit up and she held him tighter. "I love you too, Steven."

---

I wanted to write something cute for Jackie & Hyde, but I'm not sure if this was too OOC for Hyde, so let me know what you think. :)


	21. Chapter 21

. 

This chapter is a good 800 words shorter than the last one. Sorry!! I've just been SO busy, and I wanted to get something up, so I came up with maybe 1800 words, and I thought I had a decent place to end, so I decided to post this now, because I haven't a clue when I'll have time to write more, though it should be soon. So I'm sorry it's short, but hopefully it'll still be enjoyable.

---

"Donna, I'm bored," Eric complained. "Why'd you make me lend Hyde the car for the night? We could've gone to dinner or something."

"Come on, this could be our only chance to get them back together, and I'm worried about Jackie. I mean, if this goes on much longer, she might, like, go shave her head and join a cult. Do you want _that_ to happen?" Donna demanded.

Eric smirked. "Actually, that might be kind of funny." Donna glared at him. "Okay, maybe not so much…"

Suddenly, a car could be heard pulling up the driveway. Eric and Donna exchanged a look. "Let's go see," Donna said, grabbing Eric's hand and dragging him outside. "Awww. Let's leave them alone," she sighed, smiling, when she saw Jackie nestled against Hyde, and Hyde with his arm around her.

"Uh, let's _not_," Eric looked disgusted. "They're tainting the Vista Cruiser!"

"Eric!" Donna hit Eric on the arm. "We don't want them to know we're here, it'll ruin it." She sighed. "Too late."

Sure enough, Jackie was sitting primly on the passenger seat, her hands folded on her lap, and Hyde had removed his arm from her shoulders. They were staring suspiciously at a disgusted Eric and an elated Donna. "Well, aren't you two cute?" Eric strode over to the car and placed a bony hand on Hyde's shoulder through the open window.

"I know we are," Jackie said in her usual confident manner.

"Shut up, Forman, I'm not _cute_," Hyde snapped, shrugging Eric's hand off his shoulder.

"Yes, you are, Steven. Your hair is adorable," Jackie smirked. She decided it wasn't so wrong to make fun if she was at least being honest, as much as she wondered _why_ on earth that statement was honest.

"Shut _up_," Hyde repeated, but returned Jackie's antagonizing smirk.

"Hey, how come when you tell _me_ to shut up, you hit me, but if you tell _her_ to shut up, you get all goofy and sappy about it?" Eric demanded, carefully stepping just out of Hyde's reach.

"Because she's hot," Hyde responded.

"I'm hot. Donna, aren't I hot?" Eric turned to his girlfriend for reassurance.

"Of course you are," she told him, doing her best to keep a straight face.

"Yeah, but I'm not going to do it with _you_," Hyde interrupted, getting out of the car and throwing the keys to Eric. "So I don't care how hot Donna lies and says you are."

"She's not lying…" Eric began defensively, then registered the rest of Hyde's statement. "Wait. You and Jackie _did it_? Uh, _gross_."

"Jackie, don't you remember how I happened to end up with a kid?" Donna stared in disbelief at her friend.

Jackie followed Hyde out of the car and glared at her friend incredulously. "What, did you expect me to wait forever to do it? Steven and I are in love. And besides, we used protection. Like, right before we did it, I was like-"

Hyde put his hand over Jackie's mouth. "Okay, Jacks, they get the point."

"No, Jackie, go ahead and continue. How was Hyde? Was he… what was it Kelso said he was like…?" Eric turned to Donna.

"The Apollo Rocket of Love," Donna supplied.

"Yeah, that. Was Hyde like the Apollo Rocket of Love?" Eric inquired, struggling to keep a straight face when he saw the hardened glare Hyde was shooting at him.

"Oh my god, it was so-" Jackie began to reminisce, only to have her voice muffled once again by Hyde's hand.

"Forman, shut up," Hyde said, punching Eric with his free hand.

"Ooh, fighting? Sexy," Fez said, appearing suddenly in the driveway, with Kelso alongside him. "Hyde, you're so big and strong…"

Hyde stepped slowly away from Fez. "Okay, little buddy, you're coming on a little strong there."

"Fez, you perv, he almost broke your nose earlier and now you're coming on to him?" Jackie raised an eyebrow.

"I forgive him. We were fighting over you, and I have realized that you're not worth it," Fez said frankly.

"Yeah, see, I don't know if you guys knew, but we kinda had a thing goin' on a while ago. And then he caught me with Laurie, so he went off with you, but then Hyde whipped his ass, and Laurie went off with some married guy, so now we're back together."

"You have no idea how creepy it is to hear you say that you're together," Donna observed.

"Yeah, well. Better me than Jackie, eh, Hyde?" Kelso elbowed Hyde and grinned. "And better Fez than Donna, right, Eric?"

"So I'm assuming this means you've got no interest in being a father to Erin, right?" Eric asked.

"Who's Erin?" Kelso cocked his head, confused.

"Oh, god," Donna shook her head and went through the Formans' garage and into her backyard.

"Dammit, Kelso," Eric said, exasperated, following Donna.

"What's their problem?" Kelso asked. "And who's Erin? Is this one of those corny school projects? Cause I never go to Home Ec., so if Donna picked me to be her partner, that's just her being stupid."

Hyde punched Kelso. "Moron, this isn't about Home Ec."

"Erin is the baby. Donna's kid. _Your_ kid!" Jackie reminded him furiously. Kelso had never really registered that he had a child, and his ignorance was beginning to get on even Jackie's nerves.

"Oh, yeah, that," Kelso nodded. "Well, yeah, why would I be the kid's dad? I didn't even know it existed until like last week. And I'm not even Donna's boyfriend!"

"Jesus Christ, Kelso," Hyde stared at his friend. Kelso was acting the most heartless bastard Hyde had ever met, including himself.

"You are the most heartless _bastard _I have ever met, Michael! Including Steven, and trust me, Steven's been pretty heartless," Jackie directed a withering glare at Kelso.

Hyde opened his mouth to defend himself, then shut it. _Maybe I deserved that_, he thought. That was a thought he rarely had, but in this case, it was definitely true, even though he still didn't believe that all the blame for what had happened between him and Jackie could be cast upon him.

"Michael, I swear to god, I really just want to hit you right now," Jackie seethed.

"Do you mean that in, like, a sexy way? Cause if you do, I'm all for it," Kelso grinned idiotically, flashing a thumbs-up at Hyde.

Jackie's mismatched eyes widened and her nostrils flared. She raised her tiny hand and began winding up, thinking that bitch slapping this bastard's pretty-boy face until he cried would be the best thing she ever did.

Hyde grabbed her hand. "Come on."

"No! I wanna kick his ass!" Jackie struggled feebly against Hyde's grip, much to Kelso's amusement.

"Yeah, me too, but Red's in the kitchen eating dinner, and if he sees us kicking Kelso's ass on the driveway, he'll make me clean up the blood," Hyde said, half as a warning to Kelso, and half seriously.

"Fine," Jackie said, her fiercely angry stare still fixed on Kelso. When Hyde loosened his grip on her, she took the opportunity to take her heavy platform shoe to Kelso's shin. "Bastard." She then dragged Hyde through the garage towards Donna's house before Red could come outside to see the cause of Kelso's shriek of pain.

"Nice," Hyde nodded his approval. The little cheerleader was coming along well.

---

Eric sat down on Donna's bed. "Donna, I don't think Kelso's going to help you with Erin," he said, stating the obvious.

"Yeah, I kind of never thought he would…" Donna sighed. "I mean, I hoped he was the sweet, kind of dumb guy that I thought he was when I met him. I thought that guy might help me out a little. But he's just… well, an idiot."

"Can't argue with that," Eric agreed. "So… do you know what you're going to do?"

Donna laughed. "No idea. It's been a month and about all I've figured out about what I'm doing is what her name is. I still don't even know how to change a diaper."

Eric wrinkled his nose. "Uh, she hasn't been wearing the same diaper since you brought her home… right?"

"Yeah, Eric, she's been living in her own poop," Donna said sarcastically. "No, your mom's actually been attempting to show me how to change her. She usually ends up just giving up on me and doing it for me in the end."

"There's a fun way to bond with your boyfriend's mom. Have her teach you how to change your illegitimate child's diaper," Eric joked. Then he turned serious. "Hey, you know, maybe I could get her to teach me to do it. Then I could help you out some. Or at least try."

Donna smiled. "Well, thanks. But… I don't want you two to, like, get attached. I mean, what if we break up? It would be really hard on her. Like, I'd love for you to be like her dad… But what if you don't want that in, like, five years? Or even three? I don't want to have to tell her that you're not going to be around anymore."

"That's not going to happen," Eric promised, no hint of anything other than seriousness in his face and voice. "Donna, I want to help. And I swear to god, if I get into this, I'm not just going to up and leave. I mean, come on. I'm not Kelso. I don't have Farrah hair," he joked.

Donna cracked a smile. "Yeah, you definitely don't have Farrah hair. You don't bear any resemblance to any of the Charlie's Angels… That's probably good."

"Probably. I mean, if my name was _Erica_…" Eric pretended to ponder this. "But it's not."

"Yeah, if your name was Erica, our situation would be even weirder than it already is," Donna pointed out.

"That's definitely true," Eric agreed. Silence filled Donna's room for a moment before they returned to the original subject.

"Eric, I know you would never want to hurt her, but I don't want to take any chances, you know? Neither of us knows what's going to happen in the next five years, or even five months. Know what I mean?" Donna looked carefully at Eric, hoping he understood.

"Then let's make sure we know what's going to happen," Eric said.

Donna sighed. "That's impossible."

"No, it's not," Eric insisted, reaching around his pocket for something. He slowly lowered himself from the bed and got on one knee in front of her. "Donna, marry me."

---

In case you're wondering about the timeline, the story began a couple of months into their junior year in high school, and it's been nine months since then, so it's the summer before senior year. I don't think I've been great about showing the timeline in the story, it's just sort of in my head.

Anyways, R&R.


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